Ray Oranges’ maxi-installation at Paris-Orly airport for Groupe ADP

After his New York Lottery campaign being displayed on Madison Square Garden’s huge LCD screen and Human Company’s maxi-hoardings gracing strategic locations such Piazza del Duomo in Florence, Ray Oranges should be used to work with large scale productions. And yet his recent art collaboration with Groupe ADP (Aéroports de Paris) is setting a new, impressive standard.

Paris-Orly, the French capital’s second largest airport, it is currently being modernised through an ambitious programme, and to communicate the inspiring vision behind the project, ADP has transformed the front facade of the south terminal into an immense canvas.

Inaugurated on October 15th 2018, Ray Orange’s record-breaking artwork measures 17 meters high and 202 meters wide. Printed on a micro-perforated adhesive, it covers 750 windows - which is the equivalent of 16 tennis courts.

In a disruptive move from Jean-Charles de Castelbajac’s visual style, who created the previous artwork in 2015, ADP and Parisian creative agency Babel selected Ray Oranges to represent and interpret the modernisation’s key message of the project and to create a vibrant artwork that would welcome every traveller approaching the terminal.

Ray Oranges’ exceptional sense of perspective and depth, combined with his refined use of colours and his very own artistic vision seduced both Babel and ADP. His recognisable modern aesthetics strongly resonated with the project, as explains Delphine Bommelaer, Babel’s design director: “We chose Ray Oranges for its futuristic and contemporary aesthetic.”

Creating an illustration covering a total surface of 3200 square meters was a real challenge for Ray. “When at first I’ve realised the sheer scale of the artwork I was going to work on, I felt a sense of vertigo, like when flying through turbulence.” He further explains: “I create my artworks digitally and usually the canvass I work on is an A4 size, but here it had a 130 mt width — and if you are familiar with Adobe Illustrator’s anchor points you’d know what it means!”

Associated to the message ”Paris-Orly is changing”, the artwork emphasises on the transformation’s key themes: the accessibility of the new single terminal of Paris-Orly, the architectural works and the constant attention to travellers.

“My approach to the artwork was not just to create a visually enticing image but to tell a story, and the information provided by ADP and Babel were vital to making me understand ADP and the vision behind the new airport,” says Ray.

The artwork is indeed an essential element for all stakeholders in Paris-Orly’s modernisation as well as for the travellers themselves. For Régis Lacote, director of Paris-Orly airport, the mural “embodies the airport’s new start and demonstrates our desire to provide a better service to our passengers.”

Ray concludes: “Sometimes vertigo can push you to overcome all the obstacles, go to the next level, and this is precisely what happened.”

If you happened to be in Rome or in Florence recently, you have probably come across Ray Oranges’ illustrations for Italian hospitality group Human Company. With large billboards boasting Ray’s striking artworks, and advertising pages in all the major print publications from il Sole24Ore to Vanity Fair, the least we can say is that the national campaign didn’t go unnoticed!

Ray Oranges was challenged to capture Human Company’s brand and depict the broad offer of their services, both centred on people and nature. Working with Human Company and their creative agency, Ray Oranges took inspiration from the slogan “Open air, open mind” to come up with a series of artworks with simple and unexpected play with scale, harmonious lines, pleasant textures and stunning colours.

Aimed at challenging the perception of the hospitality industry, the feeling of calm, serenity and anticipation permeates the campaign’s illustrations. Ray used his trademark and surprising visual compositions and intertwined them with his skilful use of forms and colour to convey Human Company’s ethos.

The campaign comprises of six different artworks, each one focusing on one of Human Company’s services, that will be released throughout the year—keep your eyes peeled!

Beauty, opulence and nature: Rohleder x Olaf Hajek

Olaf Hajek’s opulent flower arrangements, animals and women have taken a new, seducing form with his collaboration with Rohleder, the German textile company founded in 1946 and specialised in manufacturing sophisticated upholstery and fabrics.

For their new Home Collection, Rohleder was determined to collaborate with an outstanding artist whose work would enhance the quality and design standards of the brand, and create one of the highest-quality collections in the field of interior textiles.

Rohleder’s team was immediately fascinated by the world of Olaf Hajek and the collection, which required more than a year to transform Olaf’s intricate and beautiful paintings into fabrics, is an ode to textile culture.

Hans Schüssel, Rohleder’s CEO, describes it as the “most exclusive and extraordinary textile collection created in the company history of the weaving mill Rohleder”.

The Rohleder x Olaf Hajek collection includes an exclusive fabrics range (upholstery and furnishing fabrics), hand-crafted cushions and plaids with delicate embroidery, pouffes, as well as majestuous framed textile pictures.

Welcome, Ricardo Fumanal!

Gifted with an exquisitely refined technique and an immediately recognisable sense for composition, Ricardo Fumanal is a household name of fashion illustration who is not afraid of pushing boundaries.

Hailing from Spain, Ricardo has travelled across Europe to develop his art. First studying graphic design in Barcelona, he then proceeded to focus on hand-drawn illustration and digital design, landing his long-standing collaboration with leading Spanish publication, El Mundo. As he lived between Barcelona, Madrid and London, Ricardo’s career has come to embrace a broad range of projects, such as advertising campaigns, fashion brands collaborations on textile prints and accessories and fine-art shows in galleries with original works and prints.

Ricardo is an outstanding artist who brings into his artworks a multi-faceted and versatile gaze, in which precise line work and tactile shading are arranged with a surrealistic-inspired approach, as stillness and speed exist side by side.

Channelling a sleek perfection frequently imbued with a multi-layered irreverence, Ricardo is a natural perfectionist and creates in ink, pencil, markers and watercolour, mixing his excellent black and white work with colour highlights.

We sat down for a chat with Ricardo at the Ace Hotel in London to find out more about him and his artistic vision.

Why did you switch your interest from graphic design to hand-drawn illustration?
I feel that digital design and hand illustration are very linked and thus moving between the two mediums feels seamless. I started my professional career as a graphic designer, but after a few years, I wanted to broaden the scope of my work and began working on hand-drawn illustrations commissions only. Hand-drawn illustration feels more intimate to me, as a direct and physical extension of my point of view; while technological advancements are essential and digital design does contribute to my portfolio, hand-drawn illustration has another kind of “warmth” that cannot be channeled digitally.

Which elements of your graphic design studies influenced your art?

Working in graphic design laid the groundwork for my point of view. The most significant element I took from it was composition and is one of my most recognisable visual signature as an artist. Additionally, graphic design helped me in my post-production process of digital collage, retouching and image processing.

You stand out from in the fashion illustration landscape for your impeccable technique paired with an unexpected use of composition: how did this approach come about?

Since childhood, my experience with art has always been led by a perfectionist and exacting nature. This realism is pervasive throughout all my work, but it’s in a constant dialogue with the sense of composition—I believe it is this dialogue that allows me to create dynamic images.

These unexpected compositions achieve different results: sometimes it’s quite straightforward, sometimes irreverent. What is the strength to this storytelling approach?

I am fascinated by the extreme contrasts that can arise in combining unexpected elements in one composition. I find interesting to hear from the viewers of my work what is the narrative they have perceived: sometimes it is clearly interpreted, sometimes it can lead to a very personal interpretation. I don’t like to create work that is explicitly sexual or irreverent, but rather that gives room for interpretation.

You are a household name in fashion illustration, but your body of work goes beyond that, and I’m referring to your collaboration with brands, and your fine art shows: how do all these different subjects interact within your artistic vision?

The element that links all my works together is contrast. Soft and hard objects, expected and unusual elements all combining into one composition. Because of that I’m able to create works that explore all my different interests without stepping outside of my point of view as an artist. I have always been fascinated by fashion, just like I have always been fascinated by art, sensuality or storytelling. My work allows me to express all these interests together.

Can you tell us a bit more about your personal work?

My personal work is a fundamental space for experimentation with new techniques and subjects of interest for me. In much of my personal work, I look at the narratives of sexuality and sensuality, and the similarities and contrasts between the two. I like being able to explore desire in all its different forms, combining traditional symbols of desire with unusual or even humorous elements in the same composition.

Where do you find inspiration?

It might be a cliché, but I find inspiration everywhere. Beyond my general interests in art, fashion, photography, romance, sensuality, I feel that my work functions as a mirror to my everyday life. The work I produce is always a reaction to the world around me or to my experiences. It is either at ease with my day to day life, or intentionally contrasting it. Every day I ask myself questions and my work is, invariably, my way of searching for and communicating these answers.

How do you see your style evolving?

I am currently in a period of exploration as I have been experimenting with quite a few different techniques in medium and style. I am working on bigger formats and I am exploring colour more in depth. Being a perfectionist in nature, my evolution is carefully crafted as I take time to study a new medium so I can master it before it becomes widely spread used in my work.

Why did you join Machas?

I feel Machas can be a big step forward for both my work and the management of my career. It will give me the opportunity to have my work introduced to new people and shown in environments it has not previously been in. I was very attracted to the portfolio of artists you represent and feel my point of view sits well within this range. Having partners in the management of my career is very important, both for real-time feedback and long-term strategy.

Located in the heart of Lyon, the Théâtre des Célestins is one of the few theatres in France that has been operating continuously for over 200 years. Such prestigious history is also sustained by an innovative and culturally sound program and longstanding collaborations with visual artists to bring to life all communication materials.

For the 2018/2019 season, Hélène Builly’s fascinating collages were chosen to illustrate the program that this year features timeless plays from Seneca and Molière, as well as works from contemporary authors such as David Lindsay-Abaire and Kate Tempest.

With her sophisticated and elegant aesthetic, Hélène Builly’s impressive artworks managed to capture the essence of the Théâtre des Célestins’s season: eclectic and poetic. Sometimes surreal, sometimes as realistic as photographs, Hélène’s surprising and beautiful compositions prove the versatility and distinctiveness of her collage technique.

“Collage is, first of all, an irresistible desire to change the order of things.”

The artworks are used throughout the theatre’s communications material, from its printed programme and its promotional posters through to the large banners in front of the historic building.

Truly fine design encompasses more than surface appearances. With this idea in mind, Ray Oranges created a beautiful cover illustration for the “Fine Design 360” issue of Robb Report, the American luxury and lifestyle magazine. The Robb Report team was after an illustrator that could convey the Design theme in a harmonious way - Ray Oranges was the ideal fit for the brief!

Design at its best: Illustrations for Icon Design Magazine

Icon Design is a high-end magazine talking about the world of design and architecture. For their Kitchen, Bathroom and Jewelry Dossiers, they needed beautiful and striking images focused on design. Being Ray’s favourite subject, that is without surprise that they’ve commissioned him to create beautiful artworks where minimal and smooth lines meet bright and bold colours.

Asimmetria: A book cover for Feltrinelli Editore

Asymmetry is an international best-seller written by Lisa Halliday. For the Italian edition of the novel, publishing house Feltrinelli Editore needed a strong cover to draw people’s attention to the book and spark their curiosity. Ray fused the main themes of Halliday’s story into an asymmetric composition of geometric precision, giving the book an eye-catching presence in bookshops all around Italy.

From Colour to Eternity: Wanda Barcelona for Daelim Museum

Paper is an ordinary, familiar material. To most of us, is a mean to an end, to Wanda Barcelona is the foundation on which to create incredible works of art.

After their stunning installations for the Karl Lagerfeld retrospective in Bonn and the Dior exhibition in Paris, Wanda Barcelona were invited by Daelim Museum, a contemporary photography & design museum in Seoul, to be part of their show Paper, Present.

The exhibition featured the works of ten artists, all commissioned to reveal the intrinsic qualities and pure beauty of paper. Over the seven rooms dedicated to the show, the visitor was taken on a journey into the world of paper, with artworks combining natural and emotional elements.

Wanda Barcelona created for the Daelim Museum a dreamy, Japanese-inspired garden, bursting with wisteria flowers, some immaculately white, some filled with colours. “The coloured wisteria were made so that the light coming through a small window could be projected on them”, explains Inti from Wanda Barcelona. “Each colour was segmented in order to be seen with the light”.

With their large-scale art installation titled “From Colour to Eternity”, Wanda Barcelona transformed the room into a fairytale world transcending time and space and offered a unique experience to the visitors by playing with space, delicate paper objects and sensations.

Less is more: Lulu Guinness x Jonathan Calugi capsule collection

‘Less is more’ is a motto that many strive to live by, but not many can manage to evoke quite as successfully as Jonathan Calugi. The timing for this collaboration could not have been more perfect as Lulu Guinness’ desire to launch her first ready-to-wear line matched with Jonathan’s wish to branch his art out into the world of fashion.

Lulu Guinness is a British accessories fashion designer, world-renowned for her bold, quirky and feminine aesthetic. While reading London’s ES magazine, the designer’s attention was immediately captured by Jonathan Calugi’s elegant and graphic illustrations that each week grace the pages of the magazine; Lulu felt that Jonathan’s art resonated with her vision and decided right on the spot to get in touch with him.

Following an initial discussion and a meeting in London to brainstorm ideas and concepts, the collaboration blossomed into an inclusive clothing line (“I wanted to make clothes that everyone could really wear, whatever size or shape they are”, states Lulu) and a bag line released across the SS17 and AW18 collections.

Lulu opted to focus on the brands’ trademark red, white and black palette, and integrated Jonathan’s single-line drawings in her unique designs, from bags to dresses to jackets and jumpers.

The result is two vivacious and unconventional collections, which premiered to the public at Lulu Guinness’ Covent Garden store. It was vital for both artists that the collections upheld their ethos of elegance, style and cheerfulness while also bringing something slightly different to the table.

In Lulu Guinness’ own words, “if you’re going to do something then it has to be distinctive.”

Peruvians all over the country hold parties and ceremonies to remember the Declaration of Peru’s Independence on July 28th. Along with Christmas, “Fiestas Patrias” is one of the most important celebrations of the year in Peru, making it an occasion that Snapchat, of course, wasn’t going to let pass quietly!

Snapchat is renowned for always looking for new ways to engage its users with relevant, country-specific animations, and wanted to breathe a colourful and playful life into Independence Day festivity. With this in mind, they’ve collaborated with our very own Miguel Angel Camprubí, who’s vivacious short animations managed to capture the joyous essence of the day with his trademark touch of humour.

Miguel weaved iconic symbols of Peruvian heritage – he even counted on the appearance of a rogue Llama – with splashes of colours, while the movement of the animation made you feel as though you were in amongst the celebrations.

Peruvian Snapchat users woke up having received Miguel’s animations via their app. A perfect way of beginning the festivities.

Live a life well slept: Jonathan Calugi for Casper’s The Dreamery

Popular mattress start-up Casper have recently opened The Dreamery, a space devoted to relaxing and recharging in the heart of Manhattan, in New-York.

For $25, people can book a 45-minute session to take a nap in a wooden cocoon-like pod, fitted with one of the brand’s comfortable mattresses. Each guest is greeted with drinks and comfy pj’s to change into when they arrive, so they can get ready for a good Zzzz.

Casper wanted to create an artwork that would help to turn The Dreamery’s lounge into a magical dreamlike space, where calm and comfort prevail. Jonathan Calugi’s simple and fluid line art was a natural fit for this. He created a piece full of serenity and happiness, where smiley characters stand alongside little puffy clouds and stumble upon pastel-coloured shapes. Once put on the walls, Jonathan’s work enhanced the space and beautifully illustrated the joy of snoozing.

Bright Days: Miguel Angel Camprubi’s irresistible Facebook stickers

With hundreds of options to choose from, each one cuter and funnier than the last, scrolling through the Facebook stickers collection brings the same level of excitement as being a kid at the toy store. There is basically a sticker for everything you want to say - from expressing your love for pizza, to manifest your joy with a silly dance move you wouldn’t dare to pull in real life.

Miguel Angel Camprubi was commissioned by Facebook to create a stickers collection in his own style. Knowing Miguel’s delectable sense of humour and his talent to create surprising and light-hearted GIFs, Facebook wasn’t afraid to let him free to express his creativity and come up with a series of funny scenes and adorable characters.

This is how “Bright Days” came to life: a pack of twenty-one irresistible animated stickers, available for the world to download for free on Facebook. Miguel’s humour combined with his use of bright, bold colours make the series one of the most successful collections to date, ranking in the top 4% of the most downloaded packs! Get them here to use without moderation in Facebook comments and Messenger conversations.
See more of Miguel’s work here.

A building we want to work in: Jonathan Calugi for Twentytwo London

With people caring more than ever about their wellbeing, traditional working environments are evolving. Gone are the days of cubicles-filled offices and depressing, poorly lit open spaces. New innovative concepts are flourishing everywhere at an impressive rate, giving the opportunity for people to work in an inspiring environment while improving their work/life balance.

Twentytwo London has been imagined as a building we’d actually want to work in. Due to open its doors in late 2019, the new building will be located on 22 Bishopsgate. From its lobby turned into an art gallery, to its restaurant serving healthy food or its yoga and meditation studio, Twentytwo is designed to be as enjoyable as possible.

To create striking visuals reflecting the building’s eclectic offer, Twentytwo and their creative studio The Beautiful Meme collaborated with seven international creatives - including Jonathan Calugi - and challenged them to create artworks based around three primary colours. They wanted the building’s identity to be “less about architecture and amenities, and more about character and soul.”

Jonathan Calugi created a piece using his abstract line work, combined with a few colourful elements and dots to evoke the building’s exciting food offer. The result is a simple yet modern illustration in Jonathan’s very own style, where fluidity, movement and joy are all expressed in one artwork.

Jonathan’s piece contributes to bringing to life the Twentytwo London overall brand identity. It is used across the building’s communication material, as well as on the walls within the building itself. It is also used associated with other artworks, forming a pop and colourful diverse collage.

Machas turns seven!

Machas was born on the 14th of August 2011 out of the determination of Valentina Guarneri and Rita Comi to blend the experience of an artist agent and the expertise of a communication director. With just one laptop, one iPad and £68 to its name, the company grew exponentially year after year to become an international hub for outstanding creative talents, working with brands all around the globe.

To mark this special occasion, we wanted to celebrate what defines us: creativity and passion for outstanding art with an international vision — and we invited the amazing Becha, who was the first artist to join Machas in 2011, to work her magic on an exclusive new piece.

“Seven years ago, I was an artist who wanted to be free to do what I loved the most. Soon after quitting my regular job, I received an invitation from Machas. Well, don’t tell me that Universe doesn’t have a plan. Since then, a lot of things happened. We grew from our successes, as well as from our mistakes. But when I put aside all the things that make our relationship professional, there are still so many personal moments, an infinite amount of understanding and above all, support. Thank you for that and cheers to many years to come!” — Becha

We would like to thank all the Machas artists (Kelly Anna, Becha, James Braithwaite, Hélène Builly, Jonathan Calugi, Miguel Camprubí López, Fernando Chamarelli, Olaf Hajek, Obinna Mgbado, Ray Oranges, Jeff Rogers, Tooco, Ufo5 and Wanda Barcelona) for joining our team and working side by side everyday. Thanks also to the Machas artist network for the excellent projects we have delivered, as well as the clients we’ve had the pleasure to collaborate with.

Thank you all for joining us on this journey knowing that the best is yet to come!

What is your Style DNA? Kelly Anna for H&M x Stylist

Kelly Anna’s great sense of style doesn’t go unnoticed. The artist has a strong background in print design and has created trendy patterns worn by Beyonce and Cara Delevingne. With her evident interest in fashion, her natural confidence and powerful illustrations, Stylist and H&M wanted to collaborate with the artist on their “Style DNA” series and explore her take on fashion and workwear.

The campaign focused on four inspirational women coming from different backgrounds, showcasing their talents, strengths, own individuality and, of course, their relationship with fashion and style.

Kelly was the first to be featured on the campaign. The interview was filmed in her studio, where the artist discussed with Stylist how fashion influences her creativity while wearing a selection of her favourite pieces from the H&M collection.

Taking inspiration from London and strong female figures, and using her vibrant colour, eye-catching designs and flowing graphic lines, Kelly also created the artwork promoting the “Style DNA” series. The national campaign was featured on billboards covering several cities across the UK.

Photograph: Robert Rieger

Photograph: Andreas Pein

Interview with illustrator Olaf Hajek

Always busy working on either personal projects or commissioned pieces, German illustrator Olaf Hajek is a prolific artist whose work has been exhibited around the world. He took the time to answer a few questions for those curious to know a bit more about him.

You have been living in Berlin for many years. In which way does this city inspire your work? What is so special about Berlin that fuels your creativity?

It’s the freedom. You never feel the pressure in Berlin. At the time, when I first moved here, things were much easier and relaxing. Berlin’s creative scene was composed of a very small group of people great to be part of. There was a fashion designer, a hat maker, etc. I remember when the mayor of Berlin came with us to New York. We had an exhibition at the Moma Store to showcase Berlin’s creativity. Illustration was so new at the time, and it was amazing to be part of this as an illustrator.

Your work is widely inspired by folk culture and cultures from around the world. Where does that come from? Is that because of many travels, or simply a strong interest in the world and its various forms of art?

It’s a combination. When I was a kid, I was always trying to escape the idea of being German, and stuck in this cold culture the country had at the time. At school, my friend’s parents were all ambassadors, coming from many different countries. At home, they played Brazilian music and had African masks decorating their walls. So from a very young age, I was always interested in escapism. Later on, I developed my own personal taste as well. I hate the ‘bling-bling’ and prefer sophistication. I have always been inspired by art, architecture, and materials like wood.

Do you sometimes experiment with less traditional painting techniques?

The first illustrations I painted were on materials that I found in the street. These days, I like to work on a clean piece of wood and create my own textures. Sometimes, I add sand or coffee powder in my acrylic paint to get a special texture. It gives a dimension to the paint.

How did the idea for Black Antoinette come up?

The idea came up when I was visiting South Africa for the first time, which is a country who has always inspired me. Black Antoinette is the idea of Marie Antoinette combined with something more organic and ethnic. The Black Antoinette is not about wealth. Nature is her luxury.

You seem to attach a lot of importance to details. One can easily spend a lot of time looking at all the details in each painting you create. Why is it so important? Do you enjoy hiding objects and symbols in your paintings?

Of course! I am always trying to bring out some symbols in my paintings, like water coming out from one point to another for example. I often combine something dark beside something that’s full of light, as I think one cannot exist without the other. The secret about my work is that people love it because of its aesthetics but also because it is darker, and touches them on a deeper level.

Effortless Everywhere: Rolls-Royce CULLINAN China Roadshow

Rolls-Royce evokes an iconography of imperiousness, chauffeur-driven masterpieces gliding silently over immaculately paved concrete streets. But as its audience is getting younger and bolder, and probably aspire at living the driving experience to the fullest, the British brand has recently unveiled the Cullinan, its very first and highly anticipated SUV.

After the launch in the prestigious Chinese region, a series of installations were created by Japanese artist Kaz Shirane, to present the car in selected public spaces and showrooms.

Rolls-Royce Cullinan sets the bar for a new concept of effortless driving dedicated to outgoing people living a many-faceted life, and also takes its name from the biggest diamond ever found: this is why the gem and its reflective qualities were the creative starting point for the installations.

We proposed to Rolls-Royce Kaz Shirane, a Tokyo-based artist from the Machas’ Artist Network whose visual language was attuned to this sensibility, and who would excel with the project. The brand saw in him the perfect vision to complement the Cullinan; his reflective, geometric surfaces, either projected towards the viewer to decorate walls or creating self-enclosed spaces to create an ever-ending process of redefining perception.

Rolls-Royce Cullinan, conceived to domain its terrain both on cityscapes and off-road with grace and authority, is the trait d’union for two seemingly opposed lifestyles and Kaz designs aimed at spatially representing the dynamic tension of the object and its surrounding.

The project, offering two multidimensional experiences that explore the relationship between the viewer and space, consisted of two different installations: one dedicated to the Roll-Royce showrooms and one for public display, each one with specific design requirements. The former needed to embrace a modular design to adapt to the different setup locations, while the public space installation was going to be a show-stopper experience.

For Rolls-Royce, Kaz pushed himself even further, as the modular approach to his installations was new territory, and worked together with the brand to develop this new design. With Machas supporting and assisting the artist in every aspect of the creative production, he created the showroom installation with a triangular module that provided full adaptability to each location, while for the public space installation he took in Rolls-Royce inspiration and designed a treasure trove of endless imagination.

Effortless Everywhere installations are both now showing in Xiamen. The two installations will be showcased in different locations across China until the end of the year.

Estrella Damm, the Spanish brown-bottled beer brand, takes great pride in being the ultimate Mediterranean lager. Brewed in sunny Barcelona for centuries, the refreshing yellow star beer was crafted as an answer to the hot southern weather.

Since 2009, Estrella Damm showcased its Mediterranean soul, and after ten consecutive summer campaigns, the brand wanted to celebrate by sharing a pack of… animated stickers! Without hesitation, the team turned to Spanish illustrator Miguel Angel Camprubi to work his magic on a series of sun-kissed stickers.

Using the most outstanding phrases in the ten years of Estrella’s Mediterráneamente concept such as « A veces lo normal puede ser extraordinario » (Ordinary things could be extraordinary sometimes), Miguel came up with seven animated stickers. The pack was then made available for people to use in their Instagram Stories. Needless to say that their success was immediate. ¡Olé!

Gold Cost lifestyle: Ray Oranges for Chevron One

Situated in Gold Coast, an Australian seaside resort, the Chevron Island is an urban atoll with an art deco vibe, where high-rise buildings, luscious palm trees and beaches with impressive waves coexist in harmony. The neighbourhood’s name, Surfers Paradise, sums it all up!

Chevron One, a residential tower located on the island, offers to its residents a modern living space overlooking the city and the ocean.

For its launch campaign, Chevron One wanted to commission an Artist to capture the building’s fabulous location, as well as the island’s lifestyle and its connections with the new arts precinct.

With his minimalist, sophisticated yet colourful approach, Ray Oranges seemed to be the perfect talent to collaborate with to capture the vibrancy of the area, while moving away from the cliché of the Gold Coast properties.

Ray, adopting a stunningly lively colour palette, created a series of beautiful artworks with a contemporary, art deco feel, celebrating the Chevron Island life and arts scene. The images brilliantly support the campaign who received an impressive response.

Olaf Hajek for Bombay Sapphire Canvas: Stirring creativity

Watching artists painting wonderful artworks under your eyes while sipping G&Ts — what could be better than this? Pursuing its global mission to ‘Stir Creativity’, Bombay Sapphire launched the Canvas project, a unique and colourful experience combining mixology and art.

The Gin brand invited Olaf Hajek along with fourteen other international artists to take over a single space in the heart of vibrant Shoreditch, in London. Their challenge? To transform a completely blank room, from floor to ceiling, into a visually stunning work of collective art.

The public was invited to watch the artists transform the space over the course of four days. Guests were encouraged to unleash their creativity by mixing their own Gin cocktails as the space around them turned into an immersive living artwork.

Olaf used his distinctive and elegant style, infused with Bombay Sapphire’s bright blue colour, to create a wonderful mural for the bar corner, bringing to life a magical world inspired by nature — one of Olaf’s recurring themes.

“I wanted to show a flowing branch which is held by a blue hand and tells a mystical story with elements of exotic birds and animals, and a beautiful range of botanicals inspired by the ingredients and colors of Bombay Sapphire Gin. The bottles are included like illuminated fruits and splashes of water!”

“The bar front painting continues to tell the exotic story. A blue monkey is holding a branch, out of which a series of typical Bombay Sapphire ingredients are growing and showing their beauty! The branch grows all over the front of the panel to reach a beautiful yellow bird and a hand is coming in from the bottom feeling the sensation, like holding an amazing cocktail.”

Never Stop Moving: Kelly Anna’s live painting and installations for Equinox Fitness Club

Earlier this year, high-end health club chain Equinox hosted an epic launch party to celebrate the opening of their latest club in London, the E St. James’s.

For this special occasion, the amazing Kelly Anna was invited to perform a live art piece, painting her bold, sinuous and empowering figures in front of a marvelled crowd of VIP and influencers which included Lara Stone, Arizona Muse, Eric Underwood, Laura Bailey, Yasmin Le Bon and Amber Le Bon.

To complement the live painting, Kelly Anna created two dynamic art installations, directly inspired by the gym’s identity and origins. The first installation, a set of four floating orbs defying gravity and gently dancing in the air, was set-up in the yoga studio, which was transformed into a gallery space for the evening. The second installation, a rose gold totem, was designed to match the luxurious marble-clad interiors of the former bank. Mixing vinyl and paint, Kelly’s abstract shapes elegantly complemented St. James’ smooth pillar architecture with Equinox’s symmetrical aesthetic.

We also coordinated a dance performance, inviting two contemporary dancers from the prestigious British dance company Rambert. The duo choreographed a unique performance, using the movement in Kelly’s artwork as the starting point to create their piece.

New Talent: Miguel Angel Campubrì

Miguel is an exciting young illustrator and animator hailing from Spain. After graduating with a degree in design and one in illustration from Madrid’s Universidad Complutense and completing a working experience in product design and motion graphics in Amsterdam, Miguel realized that illustration was his true calling. “I think no other sector allows me as much freedom as illustration does,” admits Miguel. “It let me explore and do as many different things as I want.”

At a very young age, Miguel has developed a quite distinctive world populated by startling characters that are essential as though reinterpreted through the delicate lens of innocence and humor. Whether illustrated with few simple black lines or fully dressed in his signature bright and bold color palette, Miguel’s characters channel a strong, witty personality, resulting in visually enticing snapshots of a cheerful and uplifting world, undoubtedly energized by a smart use of animation. “When you start animating your own illustrations it makes a big difference,” says Miguel. “As my artworks are quite simple, I think animation add one more dimension, time, that makes them much more complex regarding storytelling.

The two languages work perfectly together, although illustration is the base”. The fine balance between an essential and distinctive trait and the capability of representing surprising narratives is what makes Miguel’s work so fresh. After Madrid and Amsterdam, Miguel is currently living in Lisboa, Portugal: ” to be honest, if I look at my work from the outside I may find certain differences depending on the place where I was living. But I don’t see the huge change I was expecting: my style has remained fairly consistent, even if I have been trying new things, I have learned to animate, and I have left aside all the techniques to go to the simplest, the pencil, the pen and the graphic tablet.”

An essential visual approach paired up with a contagious energy is a constant theme of Miguel’s work, and we don’t think that his website’s name (hahaha.com) is casual: “there wasn’t too much thinking going into the website name: I like laughing, and sense of humor is really important to me, so I just wrote “hahaha.”

Jonathan Calugi’s “Ditirambo” at Magma Books London

Machas and Magma Books are delighted to present “Ditirambo”, Jonathan Calugi’s first London solo show.
Known for his minimalist and joyous one-line artworks, the Italian artist and designer Calugi will unveil a series of new works which continues his ongoing exploration of the emotive power of essential simplicity.

The relationship between the ever-growing complexity of reality and the primal need to discover universal values is a recurrent theme in Calugi’s poetic. “I remember when I was a kid I used to draw everything as big dots: a simple big blue dot could be the sea, a big and yellow dot was the sun. Then these dots multiplied, and we became grown-ups, occupied with the intricacies of everyday life and the schizophrenic frenzy of social media, making simplicity the most difficult art of all.”
Calugi’s work is characterised by carefully balanced compositions in which fluid lines are punctuated by bold and colourful shapes, evoking influences of Picasso’s single fluid lines and Matisse’s bold cut-outs and embraced with a strong contemporary feel. Taking inspiration from the Dithyramb, the hypnotic ancient Greek choral celebration of the god of wine and fertility Dionysus, Calugi invites the viewer to join the dance and praise life.

Calugi will attend the Ditirambo opening night at Magma’s Covent Garden store, and for the occasion, he will present a live drawing performance.
Calugi was born in Pistoia, Italy in 1982, and grew up in his parent’s stationary shop, drawing on anything he could get his little hands on; his creative attitude was also heavily influenced by his grandfather, who designed carnival parade waggons in New Orleans, USA.

His instinctual approach to art is visible not solely in his analogue installations but also into his digital art, which retains the urgency and naturally intuitive precision of trait.
Jonathan’s world encompasses anything from advertising to t-shirts, live paintings to animations, from sculptures to prints and never fails to send out a positive, encouraging message.

Perfectly on Point: Jonathan Calugi for Apple

The elective relationship between Apple and creative professionals is no hidden secret: it has been long and fruitful and always rigorously monogamous. At WWDC 2017, it’s annual developer’s conference keynote, Apple has strengthened this relationship presenting an even more integrated Apple and iPad Pro functionality that aims at bringing together the best of two worlds: the instinctual gesture of hand drawing with the endless possibilities of the digital support.

Since iPad Pro’s very first launch, Apple has always collaborated with artists to present the device capabilities and for WWDC 2017 has tapped on Jonathan Calugi’s free-flowing, one-line art amongst other.

After receiving the new iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, Jonathan was immediately impressed with how responsive and comfortable the devices were, to the point that the Pencil felt “like the real thing”.

Although he is well known for his digital art, Jonathan maintains a constant dialogue with analogue techniques: in fact, he’s done many live drawing performances, not to mention that each project starts with a quick hand sketch. Being able to draw on a digital support, to use desktop-based tools but maintaining a free-hand feel, has dramatically increased Jonathan’s speed of execution.

“I was really impressed by this collaboration”, confesses Jonathan. “I think that working with Apple is an aspiration shared by many working in the creative field, me included! I was particularly pleased to be chosen for my art, and everyone at Apple was really careful in preserving my creative approach and style.”

Style Icons: Hélène Builly for Esquire UK

Esquire, the smart man’s guide to the best life has to offer, has set on a journey to explore why some of the most stylish male icons belong all to a bygone era. The article, bluntly titled “How come all the most enduring icons of masculine style are six feet under?”, is definitely not about project nostalgia but stating an unquestionable fact: these men’s style has stood against time and still inspires us nowadays (Tom Ford anyone?). To make this aspect unequivocally clear, Hélène Builly was called to illustrate the feature, using her eye for composition and beautiful colouring to imbue the image with a contemporary feel.

“The concept for this illustration was inspired by the 40th-anniversary cover of Esquire where they featured all their literary contributors together,” says Esquire’s Creative Director Nick Millington. “We asked Hélène to piece together a host of classic images, creating a legendary event where the most enduring icons of men’s style were together in one room. Finishing it off by colouring it up like we’ve never seen before made for an arresting image.”

The illustration sees film stars Steve McQueen, Marlon Brando, James Dean and Paul Newman rubbing elbows with Frank Sinatra and Miles Davis and bona fide legend Muhammad Ali amongst other. “The playful nature of the collage,” continues Nick, “combined with Helene’s elegant and sophisticated aesthetic lends itself perfectly to an Esquire feature.”
See more of Hélène Builly’s work here.

After the launch of Zara Home’s biggest store in the world and last year’s Milan Design Week window displays, Wanda Barcelona consolidate the collaboration with Zara Home with another daring project: bringing an underwater fantasy into the heart of the Swiss Alps.

With an impressive 600 square metres store located over three floors on the famed Bahnhofstrasse, the grand opening of Zara Home’s third Swiss store called for an outstanding installation.

Inspired by the SS17 collection, Wanda Barcelona immersed the building facade into a paper sea landscape, creating a stark yet elegantly beautiful contrast with the surrounding environment.

500 white corals of different sizes and genre delicately grew out of stone slabs and metal structure, as it would normally do in Switzerland. To balance form and function, Wanda Barcelona selected a 100% waterproof Japanese paper normally used for scuba maps, which guarantees a premium finish as well as an excellent performance in case of adverse weather conditions, quite common in this period of the year.

The installation, which required twenty hours to be rigged, was on display for a week and marks another outstanding creation worth of the Studio’s motto “Paper Dreams”.

Jonathan Calugi & Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” 2017

Fortune’s annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” list, dubbed as the most extensive employee survey in corporate America, isn’t solely a snapshot of the companies who provide the most lavish policy or fanciest freebie. It is rather an indicator of employees’ trust in their co-workers and managers, which in returns translate into profitability, revenue growth, stock performance, and other key business ­measures. To highlight the importance of this crucial human factor, Fortune reached out to commission Jonathan to bring his quirky style to the table.

Although Jonathan is mostly known for his one-line style, he’s not new to creating whimsical vector character that would be either part of his pattern or a stand-alone (we love and cherish our own Wonder Woman print from the “Fat Super Heros” series!).

From bell boy to the Google employees squad, the top ranking companies received the Calugi’s treatment which included a short animation done in collaboration with long-time collaborator Simone Brillarelli and Nicola GianniniMore of Jonathan’s work here.

Milan is one of the epicentres of Italian style and home to a growing number of cultural spaces that put fashion and design at their core. To celebrate Milan Design Week, the city’s most exciting cultural event of the year that is taking place this week, Shop Magazine has commissioned Matteo Berton to envision the city’s new icons but with a twist.

Matteo used his architectural drawing skills and camera-like eye for composition to create a visual interpretation of the new Italian cultural hub. The cover depicts a leafy road dotted with quite recognisable buildings exceptionally standing side by side: the Prada Foundation, the architectonic austerity of the Armani Silos Museum, Villa Necchi of Guadagnino’s “I Am Love” fame, the brand new Museo del Design and the historic Pinoteca di Brera. New buildings adjoining historic landmarks highlight how the city’s DNA is steeped in design heritage and projected into the future.

Matteo saturated the image with sun-drenched hues to recreate an astoundingly unique Italian landscape, something that all the visitors of the Salone del Mobile are bound the see!

See more of Matteo Berton’s here

New Frontiers: Ray Oranges for Science Magazine

Science Magazine, one of the most reputable academic publications in the world, has just released a special issue focusing on cancer therapy. To illustrate such a sensitive and far-reaching subject, Science was on the lookout for an artist capable of conveying the conceptual background of the results as well as the positive scenario that they presented in the magazine and Ray Oranges was their choice.

The overall purpose of the issue was to feature some of the exciting new (or “newly reborn”) therapies that perhaps have not received as much attention as they should because the cancer research field is intensely focused on immunotherapy. Researchers believe that five of these new-found therapies could then be combined into the perfect “drug cocktail”.

The project comprised of two illustrations, a cover and a double spread page, that would live off each other, one further elaborating the idea presented in the cover. Science “felt this concept would be great for Ray because of his ability to use simple shapes that at one glance just look like an abstract grouping of elements, but at a second glance look like recognizable forms.”

(ph: @jadux1123)

Screening night of "Our Dream of Water” at the Sundance Festival 2017

Matt Damon holding Fernando Chamarelli's chalice.

Raise a glass to change: Fernando Chamarelli for Stella Artois and water.org

The smooth transition between Fernando Chamarelli’s dynamic designs and his native Brazil is plain to see. In a country full of life, inspiration is everywhere. So naturally, Fernando’s signature vibrancy soaks in the atmospheric melting pot of his country, and when Stella Artois sought an artist to channel the vitality of their heritage for a limited edition water.org beer chalice, Fernando’s Brazilian flair flavoured the cup.

Stella Artois and the London agency Mother were on the look out for a meaningful aesthetic to illuminate their Buy a Lady a Drink campaign in support of water.org’s provision of clean drinking water for women in less economically developed countries. Fernando’s colourful designs became the vital splash for the packaging, where a bold pattern was needed to adorn the box, whilst the chalice required graphic detail to appear as an etching encircling the glass rim.

“I did not have much difficulty to work on the two versions,” says Fernando, “because before starting a painting and using infinite colours of paint I always make sketches on paper, using a lot of lines and studying shapes. All I needed to do to make the chalice illustration as strong as the packaging was to improve the outlines and to not think of colours.”

Fernando’s thirst for design flows within his distinctive style. Having grown up around the waterfalls and rivers of central Brazil, his undulating forms and curvilinear shapes are a nod to the organic movement of his country’s wilderness. Today Fernando juxtaposes everything from street art, tattoo art to pre-Columbian figures in celebratory hues that declare the vigour and indomitable resilience of his culture. For Stella Artois’ packaging pattern, spiralling waves of kaleidoscopic colours wrap around figures enjoying the natural rhythm of life. A man caresses a bongo drum whilst further figures soak in the sun or melt into the sea referencing Brazil’s active beach scene. For the chalice design, these figures appear in etched form as they link together floating like mermaids and life givers enjoying the fresh waters of Brazil—as it should be.

Fernando has always been very open about his social and political beliefs, and the project is very close to his heart. “This project is important to Brazilians and me. I get involved in social projects whenever I can, and if I through my art, something I love to do, I can somehow help people, well this is great. The partnership between Stella Artois and water.org is a fantastic initiative and should be taken as inspiration by other big companies.”

“Water is an issue in Brazil: we recently had a president that was born in an almost desertic area in the northeastern region; he secured and completed this year a major project to divert the route from one of the largest rivers in Brazil to this dry region and provide people with water. It was amazing!

Brazil is in a terrible economic crisis at the moment, and we have a really bad president and rulers. We can not count on them to help poor people. So the “Buy A Lady A Drink” campaign is important: everyone can help so that we can turn Brazil and the world into a better place.”

The campaign viral reach is supported by a 30’ and a 60’ TV spot featuring water.org’s founder and Hollywood actor Matt Damon holding Fernando’s chalice and also comprises of “Our Dream of Water” a full-length documentary presented at the Sundance Festival and produced in collaboration with National Geographic.With the joyous energy of Fernando’s uplifting patterns, the positive change of having access to clean drinking water is as clear as crystal.

Matteo Berton illustrates “La Piovra” for Arte Channel

“Episode” is Arte’s weekly series that discusses a broad range of topics, from aliens to family values and anything in between, all through international TV series and using solely striking illustration and animation to accompany their articles.

Arte was looking for an Italian artist to create an artwork to capture the legacy of iconic 80’s TV series “La Piovra”, and Matteo dramatic storytelling was deemed perfect to represent the apparently simple complexity of the subject.

In fact, it is worth to note that “La Piovra” not only was broadcasted in Italy for nearly 17 years racking impressively high ratings but transcended the Italian borders to become a successful export of the Italian TV entertainment industry, a trailblazer for the widely acclaimed Gomorra and Netflix’s Suburra.

Even if it was clearly entertainment, figures like Berlusconi singled out “La Piovra” with being one of the main culprits of the bad rep often given to Italy (surely it his Bunga Bunga parties were innocuous activities meant to promote communication between representatives of different countries). Propaganda declarations aside, it’s unquestionable that “La Piovra” dealt with an extremely serious subject and it was instrumental in defining the way the Mafia is portraited—that sense of oppression and ubiquity of “La Piovra” (or “The Octopus”) is still part of the Italian imaginary.

Although Matteo was too young to see the series in its heydeys, he was intrigued to take the challenge and put his art at work to represent such a strong metaphor. His artwork portrays a headless Octopus looming over a Sicilian port town, with its tentacles intertwined with buildings, arms protruding from doors and windows, menacingly embracing houses as well as towers. The illustration not so subtly avoids showing the actual head of the Octopus, perfectly focusing on the inescapability of the reach of its tentacle but also its biggest strength: its faceless identity. “The one that you cannot mention,” said once a very respectable woman with her granddaughter I met in Palermo.

This project seemed perfect for Matteo because he was able to skilfully play with the perspective and geometry of the city while incorporating more organic elements. Matteo used his signature colour palette with lots of pink and purple tones to create a dramatic effect, where a sun-drenched sunset on the Mediterranean takes a darker twist.

We would like to thank Arte and Ex-Nihilo for the creative direction and freedom that made this collaboration so great!

Together as One: Jonathan Calugi for One Airbnb 2017

Jonathan Calugi has quite the reputation for uniting figures together. At One Airbnb, Airbnb’s San Francisco gathering of employees from around the world, the spotlight centred on celebrating individuality whilst championing a sense of belonging. So naturally, Jonathan’s sinuous one-line illustrations emerged as an organic fit for connecting and celebrating diversity. “Jonathan played a fundamental role in bringing One Airbnb 2017 to life,” says Airbnb Creative Director Andrew Schapiro. Selecting him to contribute illustration to the entire visual communications for the three-day conference, Jonathan’s work was brought to life across screen-based content, print, ambient graphics and merchandise.

“Jonathan’s whimsical illustrations beautifully capture the energy and spirit of our global team. He went above and beyond to deliver work that resonates with our entire team“ declares Andrew. “Everyone from our CEO down has shared excitement about how perfectly the branding of the event tells the story of our company today and evokes a sense of togetherness as we come together as one.“What better way to convey the multilayered narratives of wide-ranging individuals moving, mingling and relating than Jonathan’s strong, line illustrations?

This simple yet iconic aesthetic is an effortless declaration of Airbnb’s forward-facing outlook and focus on human connection. Yet Jonathan’s visual simplicity shields the project’s complexity. With a narrow time frame to deliver five original graphics and a further set of individual portraits illustrating the unique characteristics of each employee, a meticulous plan was required. So how did Jonathan navigate the work?

Using just one singular line, a breadth of teams across offices around the world are connected with vivid detail. The line turns and twists to reveal a new detail for the viewer to observe with every fresh look, whilst bright pops of colour punctuate the artwork with joyful tempo. Jonathan is no stranger to finely-tuned designs, but in this expansive artwork every element has been fastidiously considered.

As the diverse characters collectively unite to face in the same direction, One Airbnb’s message is voiced loud and clear. Although this year’s One Airbnb saw a significant increase in employees attending, Jonathan’s image celebrates their individuality and explores the exciting possibilities of their connection as one.

Developing the simplicity of his new style even further, Jonathan created two further abstract patterns. The first consisting purely of swirling lines reminiscent of the curvilinear figures and the second a concise mirror of the colourfully hued shapes of heads and objects playfully bounding in space. These patterns were cleverly repeated for visual communication from presentation graphics to souvenir bags.

The finishing touch? In a nod to previous employee events where guests received a unique illustration of themselves, this year Airbnb wanted to repeat the feat, only on a bigger scale! With twice as many attendees as at the last One Airbnb and only a matter of weeks to create the images, Jonathan was game to illustrate hundreds of individualised portraits. Despite the gargantuan scale of the project, this gesture evidences every person’s significant part in the whole of Airbnb. Jonathan’s contemporary finish and sleek line style fittingly convey the brand’s own development in refining its direction and advancing towards future goals.

Machas’ Artist Network shone the spotlight on a sophisticated solution to Lavazza’s latest campaign in collaboration with London Fashion Week. Lavazza wanted a dynamic image of a powerful female figure to channel its premium quality across print, billboard and moving image. Looking to capture the full flavour of the Italian palette, the team presented the client with a selection of strong candidates. With a refined aesthetic in mind, Machas helped Lavazza scent out an artist with classic Italian tastes.

As a fashion illustrator, Jessica Durrant has worked with some of the most innovative brands and glossy magazines. When Machas suggested her to Lavazza, Jessica’s painterly pen and ink compositions carried the immediacy of a designer’s original sketch. ‘I first and foremost am very inspired by Italy- I have been three times, and each time I come home full of inspiration’ says Jessica. The Machas team were quick to spot the fluid translation of these cultural roots within Jessica’s work. Lavazza’s timeless, full bodied aromas find their match in her elegant eye. ‘I love that Italian fashion is about simplicity and understanding and highlighting a woman’s curves.’
Jessica’s instinctual grace is coupled with exquisite design detail embodying the brand’s Italian philosophy.

So with the creative talent sourced, Machas collaborated with Jessica to express a sensual intensity usually reserved for the Italian catwalk. Taking inspiration from the glamorous looks of classic designers, Jessica created a sketch-like image of a compelling model adorned in a sophisticated gown that steams off into an undulating trail. Just as the dress billows to reveal its silken layers, Jessica’s art needed to be equally multifaceted. ‘I love mixing hard/soft edges. Things defined and things unfinished. It creates a striking contrast that really puts the viewer into the artwork’ declares Jessica. So she created an adaptable image of a confident woman commanding the viewer as she strides forward in a dramatic, flowing gown. This is a woman that knows her style and tastes.

The catwalk report? Coffee culture and fashionistas often go hand in hand yet Jessica’s composition is an eye-catching symbol of the Lavazza love for elegant design. With the work translating across vertical print editions to a moving billboard centred right in the heart of London’s Leicester Square, Lavazza’s timeless elegance is declared in the finest detail.

Ray's artwork was also featured in Airbnb's live event in Los Angeles, USA

Airbnb’s Future of Travel app launch featuring Ray Oranges

It’s fair to say that experiencing a new place as a local is the Holy Grail of travelling. Although unwillingly succumbing to tourist-traps or being caught in the midst of smartphone-snapping hoards is nowadays avoidable, it still requires a bit of resourcefulness and dedication.
Airbnb has then used its knowledge to expand its mobile app services and facilitate the interaction between visitors and locals.

The San Francisco travel giant had presented the self-defined “Future of Travel” app on Thursday the 17th of November and for the big launch has commissioned a series of illustrated artworks, asking various artists across the globe to capture the place they live in.

Ray Oranges, a Calabria native but living in Florence since 2002, was called to represent the Tuscan city. The brief required the Artist to bring to the table his experience and knowledge of the territory, not only with his visual language but also with his choice of subjects.

“It is impossible to talk about Florence without mentioning the magnificent Brunelleschi’s dome, so that was an obvious choice,” says Ray, “it’s such an ubiquitous image. It has been printed on a vast array of merchandise: from books to mugs, from calendars to aprons, but it never fails to impress. Even if it’s the millionth time I see it: it’s the symbol of the city, and deservedly so.”

“I’ve added next to the Dome an icon that is probably not even on the radar of the many visitors who come to Florence,” continues Ray “, but equally striking in my opinion: the Church of the Autostrada. Created in the 60s by Michelucci, one of Tuscany’s most influential architects, it’s an extraordinary edifice that it’s excitingly modern, both outside and inside— I love being in that building, it’s so trippy! My passion for architecture is well known, and I liked the idea of representing an unusual aspect of Florence.”

“The whole composition is tied together by the rolling hills that surrounds the city and that makes this place so special.”

Constant Flow: Matteo Berton’s on form with stream of editorial illustrations

Storytellers are by nature, inventive. Always motivated by new ideas, they let their curiosity lead their creation of fascinating landscapes and unusual subject matters. Perhaps this is why Matteo Berton constantly surprises us with his innovative exploration of space and colour. It’s also the likely reason why Matteo has a constant flow of editorial commissions. Over the last few months his illustrations have seen him determining dinner party etiquette for Wired UK, escaping to festival fields for The Pitch Fork Review (US), seeking out urban secrets for Donna Moderna (ITA), grappling with the future of immense American forests for Oprah (US) and relating humans with nature for Usbek & Rica (FRA).

So how does Matteo manage to conjure the details of such varied narratives? The clue is in the composition. Just as the differing articles present unique views of their topics, Matteo’s sensitive eye anchors them in unusual perspectival angles. ‘I like noticing details’ admits Matteo. ‘shifting from macro to micro is one narrative solution that I really love’. This approach is plain to see.

Matteo’s four illustrations for Donna Moderna capture the spirit of Palermo, Naples, Milan and Rome by considering how light controls the atmosphere of semi-urban expanse. His images’ off-centre rear view enables the viewer the sense of being a first-hand witnesses. Matteo’s ability to draw the viewer in takes flight from his own involvement with the scenes. ‘Most of the time I get inspired by overwhelming landscapes and architectures. I love feeling small in big spaces’. Like memories or snapshots in time, Matteo captures architecture’s sense of temporal infinity by stripping back the images to just two colours. Detail is then developed through a clever layering of lighter and darker hues against the bold stretches of monochromatic colour. Similarly in another illustration for Donna Moderna, a man setting up a Nativity Scene is positioned face on to the viewer so that they become enveloped into the narrative.

Matteo is equally in his element creating figurative scenes. Where his landscape works carry a calming purity, Matteo adapts his approach to depict the kinetic vigour of people in action. For Wired UK a more varied palette consisting of hues at peak saturation play off one another illuminating the lively conversations and ripe animation of dinner party guests. As the host lays out cheese and guests linger over wine or peruse the ample bookshelf, Matteo’s warm representation lends the narrative a relatable familiarity. So where does Matteo look when creating his resonant illustrations? ’References come from everywhere’ admits Matteo. ‘I guess I first have a blurry idea of the image’s elements and then I go looking for them’.

In The Pitch Fork Review Matteo’s illustrations concentrate on the alternative escapism offered by the Phish festival. The image combines his natural instinct for nature with his observant portrayal of people and movement. ‘I’m definitely suited to work on this subject. I enjoy highlighting the contrast between insignificant human matters and the magnificence of nature’. Choppy, juxtaposed shapes add depth to the Phish fields as people blend seamlessly into the landscape. Similarly Matteo’s images for Oprah magazine depict the co-existence of man and nature. Using a reduced, contemporary aesthetic Matteo captures the haunting, desolate effect when man tries to fight organic matter.

For France Usbek & Rica’s Future of Mankind article, Matteo’s acute vision rekindles the harmonious relationship between modern humans and nature. ‘I decided to start playing with the angle of view’ Matteo admits. Rather than a frontal or side view, land, sky and humans meet in compositional balance. With Matteo’s understanding of weight, shape and colour, it seems he has many stories to tell.

Investing wisely: Ray Oranges lends Northern Trust his sharp eye for New York Times feature

Money and Morals don’t necessarily go hand in hand. Yet Ray Oranges doesn’t shy away from non-obvious subject matters. His bold shapes and geometric compositions offer clarity to topics that range from the esoteric to the economic. Ray cleverly twists everyday forms so that recognisable objects and buildings reveal more than first meets the eye. When The New York Times’ brand marketing agency T Brand Studio looked for illustrations for a feature focused on environmental and social investment, Ray’s graphic designs capture the interception where money meets humanity.

Throughout this feature for Northern Trust, natural foliage flanks building blocks of urban space as city high-rises morph into notes and coins. ‘Northern Trust create eco-sustainable capital. It’s so important to introduce the optimistic aspect of eco-sustainability’ exclaims Ray. His positive approach to the project plays out throughout the imagery. Green hues are a nod towards the environment whilst Ray’s signature bright shades and uplifting skies lend the article a sense of optimism.

Illustrations bare dual symbolism as money combines with social conscience. ‘My imagination comes into its own when I make images with layered narratives’ explains Ray. “Although urban infrastructure is very suited to mathematical subject matters’. A curvilinear progression of rising towers that lift up towards the sun adds an architectural element to a traditional financial bar chart. A bold, earthy colour palette announces the positive impact of responsible investment.

Ray’s striking illustrations are a natural fit with digital features. When producing images for this article, Ray carefully considered technological elements such as web scrolling. His well defined shapes and use of popping colour translates into kinaesthetic visuals with fluid ease. Additionally, the digital format explores the potential of Ray’s work with arresting on-screen results. Ray himself embraces this digital direction and the opportunity it offers to ‘interpret illustrations with a more interactive, dynamic approach’. Combining organic forms, fiscal symbols and human action, the illustration asserts responsible investment as the root of positive environmental and social change. The effortless conversion of Ray’s illustration into moving graphics is an engaging call to the user.

In thinking of rich colours, vibrant blossom and escapist symbols, no-one more than Machas artist Olaf Hajek can inspire such vivid imagery. So when hot drink company YuYo looked to rebrand themselves with a Latin-American influenced identity, Olaf’s arresting illustrations brought their vision to life.

Moving away from the brands’ original name as TeaTonics, YuYo hoped to evoke the idiosyncratic flavours of their ‘Yerba Mate’ drink. The change of name called for transformed packaging, and Olaf’s designs became the visual voice of YuYo’s spirit. Characters embellished in bold botanicals, curled cornucopia and quixotic creatures declare YuYo as a brand bursting with pungent aromas. Instead of the muted monochromes used by many tea and coffee competitors, Olaf’s curvilinear paintings announce the brand’s tagline ‘Escape the Ordinary’.

Indeed it was YuYo’s founders’ Rosie and Charles’ own escape to South America that enabled them to discover Yerba Mate and create their brand. Building YuYo’s story around the sights, sounds and experiences they gained on their own travels, Olaf created original artwork that invites audiences to share the discovery of YuYo’s distinctive tastes. Olaf worked directly with Rosie and Charles to translate their photographs into stand-out visuals. Surreal shapes collide in an explosion that recalls the dynamism of South American artwork and the continent’s wild plants and animals. Olaf’s detailed brushwork and saturated colour pigments ignite curiosity as the packaging’s revitalised into an atmospheric festival of flavours. Yuyo’s new brand position as a unique blend distinctive from everyday tea and coffee is announced loud and proud with Olaf’s vibrant invitation to escape normality.
Discover more of Olaf’s work here

It’s not every day that you see a rouge tressed woman with Winter berries, floating nightingales and toy nutcrackers blossoming from her hair. Yet Olaf Hajek is known for just this style of rich and fantastical imagery. So when luxury German department store Breuninger looked to sprinkle some yuletide magic, Olaf’s illustrations became a dreamy fit.

Olaf’s work usually takes flight from the realm of myths, mystery and reverie. Weaving intricate details into surreal scenes, Olaf conjures narratives where nothing is what it seems and everything is possible. Scenes beckon for closer inspection as organic forms, flora and fauna intrigue and delight. For this project, Olaf was commissioned to embellish the exterior, street-walls of Breuninger. The result? A wondrous lady, accessorised by a bursting mane of exciting objects and joyful creatures, gazes out from the store in a blaze of royal tones. Just like the alluring array of gifts and treasures brimming inside the Breuninger shop floor, Olaf’s lady captures the gaze and demands a second look.

Covering the perimeter of an entire two sides of Breuninger, the uplifting jubilation of the scene certainly adds a festive spring to the step of passers by. Olaf’s Christmas lady symbolises the joyful spirit and mesmerising attraction of Breuninger. Therefore naturally it made sense for them to also champion his illustrations on their e-store. Here, a vivid close up of the original image forms an impelling advent calendar for shoppers to experience the Christmas merriment online. After clicking on each calendar date, users see a selection of Breuninger’s daily gift recommendations illuminated by Olaf’s vibrant Poinsettia and a drumming soldier-boy. With Olaf’s dreamy visions channelling the Festive spirit both in reality and digitally, it seems a very merry Christmas can be had by one and all.

Ph:Minna Suojoki

Ph:Minna Suojoki

Ph:Minna Suojoki

Ph: Minna Suojoki

Jonathan's initial sketches. Originally they showed a more forceful aspect of the players. This was later changed to highlight their energetic fighting spirit.

Staying top of the game is no mean feat. When you’re a leading ice hockey team, it requires technical skills, energy and the ability to work together as one. Qualities shared by Jonathan Calugi’s whirling order of interconnected lines. So when digital technology and communication brand Bouvet wanted to share their lasting relationship with Nordic ice hockey team the Stavanger-Oilers, Jonathan’s illustrative style surfaced as a winning match.

Hoping to aid positive vibes within the DNB-Arena and business rooms, Bouvet chose Jonathan’s work to bring a ‘smile to the mind’ after it was presented by design agency Montaag in collaboration with Machas. The Machas team managed the communication concept working with Jonathan to create two large scale wall drawings.

The end result? Imagine watching a game of ice hockey with your eyes slightly ajar. What would you see? Perhaps quick movements, curvilinear stretched forms and dashes of bold colour. You may sense the elation, excitement and cheering in the arena around you. Now imagine this abstracted vision and passionate spirit distilled into intertwining lines and you have Jonathan’s impactive designs. Lively kinetic transitions see Jonathan’s playful spacial layering as audience and athletes connect.

Now to bring this collaborative sense of fun into the workplace. Fingers flex and brains get switched on as workers wire up to exchange ideas in Jonathan’s interconnecting grid of people, technology and communication. Clever details in the simplified compositions mean there’s always something new for eyes.

“We knew that collaborating with Jonathan would create work of impact. Again he surprised us and did work that we never could have imagined, brilliant work” exclaims Montaag designer and partner Øyvind Kristian Tendenes.

“Calugi’s ability to communicate and illustrate ‘a day at work’ and ‘a hockey game’ in a style that gives you a ‘smile in the mind’ is something completely new in the arena and has been a massive success for the client”. Discussing the project with the client, Øyvind noted that Bouvet employees embraced Jonathan’swork, as they connect and identify with his illustrations. In the words of Øyvind, “the people working at DNB-Arena and the players of the Stavanger-Oilers really enjoy the hockey illustration and say that they ‘see new images all the times’, ‘it has captured hockey in a new way’ and ‘gives energy and really fits the arena with beautiful lines’”.

In fact the designs were so successful that new merchandise featuring the illustrations are set to be created. With Jonathan’s lively images everyone can take away a piece of the action.

We are used to associating the words pop-up and paper with playfully inventive books, but when we are talking about Wanda Barcelona, who have made a career out of exploring the limitless possibilities of paper, the two words open up to a new world of possibilities.

And that is the case for their latest collaboration with luxury Arabic sandal brand Private Collection, for which the studio has created an original temporary space in the Dubai Mall out of paper.

Situated in the front atrium of the Dubai Mall, the pop-up’s walls were surprisingly made of feather-light golden paper strands woven into intricate square panels. The result? A temporary treasure chest as intriguing from its exterior walls as the interior items waiting inside.

Further still, the popup was a fitting tribute to the country’s own architectural details. The intertwined paper features of the shimmering walls became a fitting homage to the Arabian penchant for patterns and geometric decoration. With a heavy foot fall flowing into the space, it seems that Wanda looks set to prove to the public that paper can take flight in any form imaginable.

Inner States: Leonardoworx’s new video for Elena Ghisellini

The best relationships are built on trust, and this could not be truer of the collaboration between Leonardoworx and Elena Ghisellini. The luxury fashion accessories designer was so impressed by their first project together that not only did she ask Leo for a second instalment but she also gave him complete creative freedom. ‘We are a super-combo!’ exclaims Leo. ‘It’s amazing how our taste and creative process are so similar’.

‘Everything started when Elena called me because she needed a new animation to embody the collection’, Leo recalls. ‘I wanted to create a visual journey, a story about the Ghisellini woman and her personality, all set against epic abstract landscapes inspired by Elena bags’ elements’.

So what do the multimedia artist and the leading Florentine fashion genius have in common? ‘For a start, we both love geometrics. We use the same basic three angles, and our work stems from there. It’s a very organic approach’ explains Leo. ‘these geometric foundations provide the initial spark and our creativity, which is quite fluid, ensure that every piece is completely different’. Elena’s train of inspiration leads to intriguing symbols such as her signature feline faces, but it is mostly the Ghisellini woman that holds the same qualities intrinsic to Leo’s work. ‘Elena designs for women that are strong, focused and yet still passionate about living life to its fullest’ Leo reveals. ‘It is a woman that can walk through flames, fly above clouds — she can do anything she sets her mind on! And that is the connection between Elena’s and my work: both are strong, both have something to say and have deep emotional inner states’. To realise Elena’s brief, Leo channelled his own interpretive prowess. ‘In my opinion, the goal was to express the naturally unlimited force of this woman through an unforgettable audio-visual experience’.

Despite the pair’s similarity, the project wasn’t without a challenge. ‘Elena came to me nine days before the event launch she needed the film for. She showed me the mood paper and said she would like to see the video only when finished’. With complete free creative reign yet intense time limits, Leo had to act fast. ‘I think I slept only a few hours during those days,’ laughs Leo. Multitasking became key to the project’s success. ‘When I had an animation scene ready, I launched the render so I could work on the music’.

Leo imaginatively translated Elena’s concept with great speed. ‘Although we come from different fields, our similar creative approach and taste really helped to secure the success of the project. I explored the idea of Inferno and Heaven and told the story of how these elements combine. The figure in my tale travels in an abstract landscape, she oscillates between dark and angelic places, informed by the enigmatic states of the environment she visits’.

Guests at the press launch were treated to a captivating immersion into Elena’s conceptual space. ‘There was the perfect balance between the location, the bags and my video projected on four different walls. We all had a good time, and the event pulled in a really cool, interesting crowd’. Did Leo have a favourite scene? ‘Definitely the last one, when the white sphere disintegrates in a circular movement revealing a crystal sphere inside. It’s so powerful, clean and completely represents the video in an abstract way. It gives a sense of something returning but yet different each time. The journey is never ending’.

Jäger und Sammler: Olaf Hajek new solo exhibition

There’s a delicate line between fine and commercial art — and Olaf Hajek knows all about delicate lines. His meticulously detailed brushstrokes and multi-layered aesthetic allow him to be a masterful illustrator and a potent fine artist. And Olaf’s latest solo show at the Anna Jill Lüpertz Gallery in Munich opening on the 3rd of November takes his work to new heights.

The exhibition’s ‘Jäger und Sammler’, featuring in full the ‘hunter-gatherer’ series of paintings, is layered with themes of concealing and revelation. “I was playing with the idea of masks and identities and the relationships of humans with nature” explains Olaf. Measuring around 100 centimetres wide and 150 centimetres tall, the surreal twelve new narratives tell arcane stories of compelling firewatchers, ancient forests and cryptic folklores.

“I was taking the South German old Mardi Gras aesthetics as an inspiration” Olaf continues. Although the figurative compositions reference a classical look and feel, their bewitching vigour allows parallel lands to co-exist with the viewer, evoking an omniscient presence. Intricate details invite a closer look before morphing into uncanny, familiar symbols. Colours burst out from the ornate scenes before fading into dissolved background textures. It is as though Olaf conjures the arresting immediacy of vibrant memories before enchanting viewers into the painting’s elusive world of ambiguous dreams, desires and the subconscious.

Olaf’s paintings, as well as his book cover designs, editorial and advertising works, take inspiration from fascinating characters, exotic cosmos and spellbound dreams, often engaging the enigmatic depths of the human spirit and the mysticism of the imagination.

In worldwide wedding brand Pronovias’ continued quest to breath life into fantastical bridal dreams they called Wanda Barcelona to inspire shoppers. The pairing couldn’t have been a more perfect marriage. Inti Velez Botero, Dani Mancini and Iris Joval from the Wanda team certainly know a thing or two about building reality out of reverie. But with Pronovias having 4000 points of sale in 105 countries, this project required Wanda to deliver dreams on a colossal scale.

“Pronovias contacted us in 2015 and offered us the design and production of all their window displays, 2 a year” explains Dani. The exciting proposal not only required the team to envisage an artistic concept for their mesmerising paperworks. They also had to get creative with the implementation of their window scenes. Just as every memorable fairy-tale has the structure of a complex plot, Wanda Barcelona had to conceive a sound design solution for their captivating pieces to take flight. “Designing Pronovias is always a huge challenge: we have to work with a limited budget, a humongous production and yet still must create something impressive and potent” continues Dani. The team had to concoct an effective scheme that could translate on a mass scale whilst also being easy and simple enough for each store’s visual merchandiser to assemble. Wanda always has a hands-on approach to their work but as Dani states “it is impossible for us to travel to 105 countries so we have to produce a complete set of instructions so that anyone can rig it”.

The final concept for Wanda’s second worldwide window display? “A downpour of vegetation, inspired in wisterias, weeping willows and hanging plants. A sublime backdrop for a wedding dress”. With 34,000 bronze and pink paper plants, meticulously packed for their journey into boutiques world over, Wanda Barcelona’s garden of delight was truly able to blossom. See more of Wanda Barcelona’s work here

When Omotesando Hills shopping mall in Tokyo wanted to design their Summer Edition catalogue they looked to Jonathan Calugi to capture the excitement of the new season. As a destination that inspires transformative trends, Jonathan’s sinuous lines reflect the evolving fashions of shoppers.

His work for Omotesando Hills marks another collaboration in Jonathan’s new style. His signature illustrations regularly follow singular flowing lines often looking like intricate doodles. Here Jonathan’s graphics gain an elongated sophistication to entwine individual figures into a connected narrative. Four diverse figures enjoy the rich pickings of the mall in a bold intersection of gestures, shapes and colours. Reflecting the campaign’s theme of LOVE and MODE, the characters’ sense of kinetic vigour vibrantly unites their shared love of fashion. Jonathan offset vivid yet contrasting hues to mirror the variation of personalities that choose Omotesando as their top clothing, beauty and food destination. Jutting, abstracted bodies nod towards edgy tastes and presents the innovative light, visuals and sounds that fill the mall space. Yet it is the clever simplicity of Jonathan’s swirling figurative outlines that reveals the true essence of the story.

Architecture is concealing a great problem. When design and architecture magazine Icon decided to put the UK’s social housing issues under fire, it called Ray Oranges to inspire the new breed of architects. What better way to translate the utopia captured by Icon’s leading feature than through Ray’s visionary compositions?

Space to dream is a recurrent theme in Ray’s artwork. For this issue of Icon, Ray’s work narrates the story of a vibrant future that architecture has the potential to achieve. Leading the way with his bright graphics and simple, well chosen details Ray’s illustrations bring the promise of tomorrow. His decluttered structures leave room for the imagination to take flight. Light and shadow exist in juxtaposed play, working in tandem to create a compelling absence that narrates a bold presence. His vast urbanscapes call the minds and abilities of architects everywhere to visualise ambitious concepts and palpably act upon ideological aims. Capturing the futuristic foundations of chimeric yet functional housing is a challenging balance. Using a jewell palette of jade green, turquoise, ochre and coral to offset hues that mirror a pastel sunrise, the weight of reality is lifted by optimism. With Ray’s insightful vision of voluminous walkways, floating houses and streets in the air he spins a sense of collective hope.

Icon and Ray were destined to slot together. His background in product development and studies in Architecture enable Ray to marry aesthetic appeal with an innate understanding of responsible design. For this feature, the argument goes that architects must reconsider their working practise and take the reigns to positively launch tomorrows social effectivity. Icon’s article examines how the discipline once constructed buildings made to matter in people’s lives and argues that today’s urban infrastructure instead centres around luxury apartments and capital gain. In Ray’s seamless integration of Utopian belief with systematic contours the spirit of architectural optimism well and truly lives on.

Wanda Barcelona for Drupa 2016: Transforming Spaces

Filling the colossal walls of the biggest print and cross-media trade show, Drupa in Dusseldorf would be a difficult prospect for most. Filling these spaces entirely with paper is even more of a challenge. Not for paper design studio Wanda Barcelona. ‘Drupa commissioned us to create two installations for their two most important public spaces inside the fair grounds; the Entrance Hall and the Drupa Cube’ says Daniel Mancini, the group’s founder and designer in charge. The team’s background in architecture, design and art regularly sees them exploit the potential of paper with mesmerising effect. The astonishing results of their installations at Drupa is no exception.

For the Wanda team, the ability to transform Drupa’s space came as a dream project. ‘For the entrance Hall, we designed and built an impressive Wisteria floating garden. 40,000 pendulous racemes created by more than a million flowers suspended elegantly under a crystal dome that bathed our sculpture with mesmerising light, changing it´s hue across the day’ explains Daniel. The team’s artistic inspiration arose early on. The strong Japanese influence over the city of Dusseldorf materialised into an immersive experience interpreting the light, floral beauty of Japanese gardens. The resulting ethereal wonder of the gossamer structure created a breathtaking display for visitors.

Wanda’s creative freedom had further reign in the Drupa Cube. ‘We created two colossal walls made out of 3,400 pendant papers, each one unique, with wisteria laser-cut branches forming six vast climbing vines’, continues Daniel; “ We used white paper and printed over one of its sides using the 6 Drupa colours, which were visible through the cut-out flowers. Each wall was 27 meters long and 8 meters high. 3,400 individually unique pendant papers created two walls measuring 27 meters long and 8 meters high.’ The artworks reflect Wanda’s signature approach of combining traditional artisanal skills with innovative new technologies.

The installation emerged as Wanda’s largest scale project to date and required the team to deliver ‘something humongous, mesmerising and blissful—with hints of spring. After over a year of meticulous planning, making and creating, the practical reality of such large scale work saw the team delve into new skills. A fear of heights was not an option for the Wanda team. ‘The eight of us who went to Dusseldorf had to take a course on driving construction cranes and get a diploma to be able to work at such heights. It was definitely an exciting and challenging project as we spent weeks designing the structure. Paper is a very light material, but as we were working with a conspicuous amount of paper, the total weight of the installation became significant, and we had to put extra attention into supporting such weight using beautiful and almost imperceptible structures.’ Combining the ephemerality of paper with expert prowess, Wanda’s blissful oasis offered Drupa visitors an escape into a world where the chimeric potential of paper took full flight.

The Design of Life: Ray Oranges for Sephora

Milan Design Week is an event of such magnitude that an ever-growing, international crowd gathers each year in Milan to enjoy the best design has to offer.
The “Salone Del Mobile”, as Italians commonly refer to it, has overgrown his initial in-the-known industry devotees to engage a broad and enthusiastic audience. To celebrate what has become the most important event in Milan, Sephora and event agency Exhibita invited Ray Oranges to redesign the beauty chain largest store window in the city overlooking the newly renovated Piazza Gae Aulenti.

Ray used the windows’ irregular pattern as a grid to develop a bold yet elegant composition, seamlessly tying together Sephora’s “Mummy Chic” campaign key features with design objects.

To achieve such result, Ray stripped down the elements of the composition to their essential shape and arranged them with a smart play with scale and a restricted colour palette.

In the process of removing all is not strictly necessary, Ray opted for leaving few spots on the window clear, thus creating a dialogue between the inside of the store and the artwork, reinforced by few 3D elements such as a dot-shaped orange seating.

Aptly named “The Design of Life” the installation shows how design permeates and enhances every aspect of our life.

LEONARDOWORX reinterprets ADOBE logo for the launch of the Marketing Cloud

It just take a quick look at Leonardoworx’ social platforms to notice that he is constantly creating new art. The man is unstoppable. Commissioned jobs are sitting alongside personal works in a fascinating world that blurs the line between the two. It is not uncommon that the boldness and sheer visual beauty of his personal works have inspired clients to commission a similar treatment for their projects — and this exactly is what happened with his latest collaboration with Adobe.

Soon after the release and the success of the Instafluid Series, a series of short animation in which lightweight materials are floating in a nondescript gallery environment, the Californian software giant contacted Leonardoworx to use that treatment on their iconic logo for the launch of their Marketing Cloud.

“The art director of Adobe got in touch after seeing one of my most recent personal projects called Instafluid. It was a series of 15 seconds animations where abstract shapes moved like fluids but had the texture of a fabrics”, Leonardoworx recalls.

“The idea for Instafluid came about as a reflection on 3D software: nowadays it is quite tempting to simulate the physics of everyday lives. But in my opinion is more interesting to subvert the physical laws and find a visual common ground between reality and imagination.”

“Adobe was looking to produce a 13 seconds animation in which an abstract fluid morphs into the Adobe logo. It had to represent a sort of trophy, hence the gold material. First I had to find a balance between shutter-level (including the abstract animation), morphing and the Adobe logo. As the materials had to be metallic, different from the ones used in Instafluid project, I had to do several tests before I could find the right combination of textures and colours. Last but not least, Adobe specifically asked to achieve a look and feel that was less “digital” and “more organic” whilst keeping the logo immediately recognisable - a simple brief but a lot of thought went into it!”

This is not the first collaboration with Adobe: “Correct, I had the pleasure to be involved with The Bully Project Mural, an artwork presented at the Adobe Max in Los Angeles to support the charity which helps raise awareness about bullying. They also used one of my “Nassa series” artwork for the homepage of the Adobe site on the occasion of Black Friday.”

See all Leonardoworx’ previous collaborations with Adobe here
See the previous collaboration between Leonardoworx and Adobe here

Jonathan Calugi collaborates with Nike again

After designing various tee graphics and the ubiquitous doodle style “Just Do It” that can be found printed on Nike Town bags all over the world, Jonathan Calugi collaborates with Nike once again, this time for one of their Milan flagship stores.

Jonathan has created for the central Corso Buenos Aires store, a site specific 12 meters mural of Nike’s “There Is No Finish Line” call to action — the Calugi way of course!

Each letter is a one-line style illustration of men and women training together mixed with some of Milan’s most iconic locations and Nike logos, from the classic Nike Air to Milan’s Red Snakes Running Club, from retro Oregon to Inter A.C.

The mural is a permanent installation and is visible during normal business hours.

Editorial Update: Ray Oranges lastest works for Monocle Magazine

Illustrators normally work on a project basis although it is not rare to see one commission blossoming into a fruitful collaboration. And this is exactly what happened between Ray Oranges and Monocle: from an editorial feature to the cover The Escapist, Monocle’s bi annual publication, the team of the prestigious lifestyle magazine seem to have found in ray an exciting new artist to give shape to their creative vision.

Ray has been recently commissioned to illustrate Timekeeping & Penmanship, Monocle’s insert focusing on luxury accessories; our Florentinian artist has created for the insert cover an elegant juxtaposition of two stylized shapes of a pen and a watch, which the geometrical shades perfectly balances the composition whilst the bright and warm, summery color palette.

And speaking of summer: in the following issue, Ray was called to illustrate the view from a window of train, where warm nuances and faraway places and landscapes, inspire the readers imagination with the upcoming summer season.

Singapore’s government is very serious about education and they have developed a selection of free courses aimed at different age groups: whether you are a young family with children or a senior citizen it’s never too late to embark on a new career path or to learn a new skill. Sounds good but quite serious? Not at all! Learning can be fun and it is better if it is shared together!

Based on this concept, Y&R Singapore indentified Jonathan Calugi’s style as the perfect fit to capture in beautifully simple and playful images both the message as well as the broad range of courses available.

Jonathan used his one line style to create a series of images in which all the characters are connected and joyously share the same experience, learning together and having fun.

The campaign was developed into a integrated campaign that included ATL, BTL, digital and of course events and Jonathan’s characters were spotted everywhere in Singapore from billboards to cut outs at the actual event, on the internet as well as on brochures.

Machas welcomes Olaf Hajek

It is with tremendous excitement that we are announcing that Olaf Hajek has now joined Machas. Olaf’s “painterly illustrations”, where folk and primitive art are combined with contemporary elements and symbols of different cultures, are a milestone in the illustration world.

Whether commissioned or independently initiated, each artwork distinguish itself for being meticulously painted, sometime on paper, sometimes on other surfaces such as wood or chipboard. If required, the artwork is subsequently scanned allowing Olaf to grace installations, packaging, textiles and animation with his wonderful visions.

What it is even more impressive, is that Olaf managed in his extremely prolific 20 years career to achieve what most illustrators only dream of: successfully balancing fine and commercial art, often bridging the skills learnt in one field to the other, whilst always maintaining his distinctive visual approach.

It is so refreshing to see that each brief is welcomed with enthusiasm and a propositive mindset that lead to the extraordinary outcomes that he’s well renewed for.

Although Olaf has been working with brands such as Coca Cola, Mercedes, Lotte, Mont Blanc, Swatch amongst others, exhibited in London, New York, Atlanta, Buenos Aires, Berlin, most recently in Cape Town and published three monographs with German art publisher Gestalten, he has one of the humblest and most positive personalities in the industry that leaves a lasting impression on anyone who has met him.

All those characteristics make everyone here at Machas very proud to start this collaboration with such an outstanding artist and please enjoy this section of works as a preview of what still has to come.

ES MAGAZINE REDESIGNED FOR “ELEGANCE” BY JONATHAN CALUGI

If in the last couple of months you’ve passed by the London Underground and picked up a copy of ES Magazine (one of the best free fashion magazine around), you might have seen some very familiar dancers and your guess was right: Jonathan Calugi has been busy experimenting with his latest minimal style.

Jonathan’s dancers are appearing in the magazine together with some very stylised, one-line hands that are cheekily interacting with the photos; the graphic and sleek artworks dotting the glossy pages have appeared to be a very smart way to spice up product and event features.

The collaboration with ES Magazine will continue throughout the upcoming months — try to spot the others!

Wanda Barcelona x Taschen windows installation

Paper Art studio Wanda Barcelona dived into TASCHEN’s extensive book collection to create the #Taschenworlds windows installation, a series of magical landscapes mixing natural and cultural wonders from some of German publisher’s bestselling titles.

The collage-inspired installations were developed by Wanda integrating iconic images straight from the books’ pages with different techniques, from 2D cut outs, 3D elements, popigami inserts, all whilst providing display supports for selected books. To add further depth of field to the composition, Wanda Barcelona finished off each window with a vinyl layer.

As all the displays were double-sided, the #Taschenworlds experience was taken inside the store as well and the lucky guests of the Milan store could also enjoy a splendid re-interpretation of the logo placed on luscious bush of roses and Andy Wahrol’s Polaroid plinth display surrounded by a swirling flight of weightless butterflies.

The installations were visible in all TASCHEN’s flagship stores around the world and Wanda themselves designed all the elements to be easy to ship and assemble.

Jeff Rogers for Diet Coke’s Re-Tweets of Love

Diet Coke has taken re-tweets to the next level, not by just sharing the fans’ messages on its social media platforms but by putting them out in the real world as beautifully designed artworks on billboards, accessories, magazine pages and more.

Machas’ lettering artist supreme Jeff Rogers was one of the artists called to give shape to the cheerful messages delivering a captivating artwork featuring both lettering and illustrative elements all created in the trademark white black and red nuances.

His instantly recognisable artwork popped up on a massive LED billboard in Times Square, appeared on various magazine and gracefully adorned accessories like towels or iPhone covers — even a guitar case!

LEONARDOWORX’ INFINITE NUMBERS

When he’s not busy with his commissioned work or skating a good two hours a day, Leonardoworx somehow manages to find the time to nurture his personal projects, a personal playground where to test new techniques and new concepts.

The latest personal project to go live is Infinite Numbers, a series of one-line calligraphy applied to 3D flowing paint artworks. Sculpted, glass-like integers are set against the anonymously sleek background of contemporary art gallery and, as with most Leonardoworx’ creations, they are much more than just a pretty image.

“Infinite Number is a reflection on the infinite numbers an integer can contain beyond its floating point (for the non-initiated the floating point is also known as decimal point, a dot or comma that indicates the presence of numbers smaller than 1)” explains Leonardoworx. “It sounds very abstract but thanks to this system we can quantify the distance between galaxies or the diameter of an atomic nucleus, always with the same unit of length. As a result of this dynamic range, all the numbers can be represented are not uniformly spaced and are all different.”

“I wanted to reflect this in the artwork so I started from an handwritten integer (very analogic!) that I reproduced into a 3D environment. I then represented all the numbers after the floating point as a series of grading colours and different textures applied to the 3D models. As with the Iterative Method, behind a beautifully looking artwork lies a strong mathematical system.”

Since its release the Infinite Number series was heavily featured from the likes of Adobe, Abduzeedo, Betype and Behance. See more of Leonardoworx’ portfolio here

MACHAS BRAND NEW: MATTEO BERTON, ILLUSTRATOR

Machas is constantly searching for new talent and when we came across the work of Matteo we knew there was something special about him. The portfolio we saw was compelling yet raw. Each artwork immediately captured the gaze with unexpected prospectives and complex compositions, whilst the use of color was almost instinctual, expressive, underlined by the use of thick brushes and few tighter lines.

Despite starting taking drawing classes only at the age of 18, Matteo posses an interesting mix of works, where branded content sit side by side with book illustrations and concert flyers, proving his hand to be comfortable with a broad range of subjects, from architecture to the human figure, from objects to fantastic creatures.

“My style has changed a lot recently ,” recalls Matteo, ”but there are few things that are a constant in the way I illustrate: first and foremost the attention to composition, which is always of primary importance to me. Other elements are definitely limited palette of colours and the stark contrast of the human figure against the great outdoors — whether it is natural or urban, I love landscapes as it is an exciting challenge to work out an effective and stylised composition.”

The attention to composition and the dramatic use of the point of view is definitely a distinctive trait of Matteo’s work, “and I think that is because I first started in comics”, suggests Matteo. “I always had a clear idea of the directorial choices I wanted to take and how I wanted to experiment with camera angles and light, as these are the tools I use to guide the viewer to what is important for me.”

Awarded with the 2016’s gold and silver medal of the Society of Illustrators of New York, Matteo has just completed commissions for The New Yorker, Airbnb, Monocle and Wired UK whilst working on illustrating Jules Verne’s book for Italian publisher Mondadori due to release early next year.

Ray Oranges’ rigorous illustrated shapes has met the meticulously exact type of Federico Landini to create four limited edition prints. The project, a spontaneous collaboration between two long time friends, was originated from the shared passion for creativity and went on to win the 2016’s Type Directors Club Certificate of Typographic Excellence. As Ray admits “Federico and I both have a shared love for geometric, rational, angular art and I immediately loved the idea to collaborate on a illustrated version of his type”.

The inspiration for the artwork came from a very personal approach aimed at creating a colourful patchwork of letters: “we focused from the very beginning on two, very different approaches,” recalls Federico: “ to develop very colourful and geometric shapes, even if they weren’t that easy to read, whilst leaving room for the viewer to experience each artwork with her own imagination. I think Ray’s art allows a multiplicity of point of views and I wanted to explore it through my type design.”

“We chose the four words Life, Love, Home, Time because they are the axis of human existence,” tells Ray. “Four universal concepts that happens to be all four letters words — quite convenient as well!” adds Federico.

The project is the first collaboration between Ray and Federico and it was a surprisingly rewarding experience, “ a chance to participate to a completely different creative process” as Ray puts it.

The project was submitted to the annual Type Directors Club and was awarded the Certificate of Typographic Excellence award, a welcomed recognition of Federico’s excellent typographic work and Ray’s art versatility.

Helene Builly's illustration

Hélène Builly for Wired UK - Out now!

Wired UK February issue now in the newsstand features Machas Artist Hélène Builly, the latest addition to our roster — in fact Wired’s deputy editor Ben Fraser was so impressed with Helene’s portfolio that decided to commission her straight away.

Machas’ new collage artist created 12 spots illustrations for the Food of The Future issue and can be found throughout the magazine and on the online website, showing how incredibly versatile her style is.

What a great way to celebrate out first collaboration with Hélène and expect more of her work in Wired UK March issue!

Photo by Gleidson Rocha de Souza

RUN TOGETHER: NIKE VEM JUNTO

Vem Juntos, Nike Rio do Janeiro’s new online platform, promotes running as a movement for positive change, not just for the individual but for society as well.

The platform is designed to improve the running experience and training whilst bring people together in a positive and fun way, sharing experiences and creative ideas.
For the launch of the new project, Nike invited Machas’ Artist Fernando Chamarelli to create a mural in Rio de Janeiro, in the central area of Arcos da Lapa.

Fernando who has produced outstanding outdoor art in the past (most notably a 28 meters long mural at SESC in Sao Paulo),mixed for the project a black and white photo of a group of runners gliding through a bold visual representation of a music theme. This was the first time Fernando worked with mixed media and the result is quite stunning, as it adds another layer of storytelling to an already rich visual language.

Fernando’s mural has become a manifesto to experience the streets differently.

Welcome Hélène!

Hélène is a softly spoken young woman, with an broad, contagious smile and a certain je n’è sais quoi that is a trademark of Parisian women.
Hélène is a collage artist and her work is distinctive with a peculiar sense of depth that bridges almost into a metaphysical composition of space.

The viewer is literally projected into her fascinating world, where the reality is frequently questioned through elegantly sleek images and an interesting use of light; boundaries of perception are constantly pushed, achieving a elegant short circuit that alerts but not derails the viewer’s cognitive structure. The result is a mild vertigo, like when standing on the edge of a cliff.

Her commercial work is not that openly challenging but still retain this visual sleekness and edginess but with a more fun, graphic and lighthearted twist. We immediately thought there was something special about this Parisian lady and ask her to be part of the Machas family!

As usual we sat down with Hélène and asked her few questions to get to know her better.

1. would it be very rude to ask how old are you?36 !

2. home - where is it?In central Paris, just above the Passage des Panoramas.

3. when did you think “art could be my job”? I never thought otherwise.

Leonardoworx for Elena Ghisellini

Elena Ghisellini is one of the hottest name in the fashion accessories world but she’s far from being new to the industry: chances are that you already own or seriously desire a bag the Florentinian designer has created. In fact Elena not just has spearheaded the accessories division at Trussardi, Salvatore Ferragamo, Emilio Pucci but whilst at Givenchy she’s masterminded two of the house most iconic bags, the “Nightingdale” the “Antigona” bag and “Pandora” bag

For the launch of her eponymous new collection Elena contacted Leonardoworx to create a video that would introduce her key bag, the splendid “Felina”, and that could also be projected during two event launches, one in New York and the other at Milan Fashion Week.

“Elena saw my reel and she wanted to meet”, recall Leonardoworx; “we both live in Florence so I went to her studio and as soon as we started talking about our creative process we immediately found many similarities.”

“She showed me the collection and I was really impressed: the designs were exquisitely original, elegant, geometric and organic at the same time. The concept behind each bag is so strong that it is immediately recognisable as Ghisellini: timeless, contemporary, heartfelt pieces for a charismatic, creative woman who’s in constant evolution and loves nature”, continues Leonardoworx. “It was also really interesting to see that the key aesthetic element of the “Felina” bag is a geometric combination of leather layers, very symmetric, which is quite similar to the themes I’m exploring with my artworks.”

“Since our first meeting I felt that Leonardo was a special artist: sensitive and visionary at the same time.” recall Elena Ghisellini. “His thinking goes Beyond the sensory and tactile dimension. A modern artist who expresses his enthusiasm only through the glance of his eye. I believe that the aim of an artist is not only to become deeply involved in the work that is creating but also to make the viewer interested and make him think but Leonardo did more than that: he created an art piece within my creation of the Feline…”

“The starting point for me was the “Felina” bag, so Elena arranged to have one delivered to my studio: I’ve looked at every single detail and stitching and then I started shooting; I wanted to capture the impressions and suggestions that I got from the bag and translate them in images and sounds. I also wanted to find a recurrent element as the fil rouge for the video, something that I could play around with, transform into abstract, optical and organic words — and that something was the geometric pattern right at the centre of the bag.”
“Elena had only one request: that the video should be able not just to represent her but also to make a connection on an emotional level with the viewer. And then she gave me complete freedom, to the point that she didn’t want to see the work in progress but only the final piece — it was like she commissioned an art piece.”

“I always admired artists and I am constantly inspired by arts for my creations.” recall Elena Ghisellini. “Working with Leonardo proved immediately that our collaboration was smooth and natural. I left him complete freedom to express himself.”

“This approach allowed us to go beyond the traditional fashion or advertising video and to fully embrace the essence of the bag, both on a emotional and communication level. It was clear that this bag embodies the passion, creativity, craftsmanship and vision of its designer. Getting to know Elena and work with her was a truly rewarding experience.” said Leonardoworx.

“I quickly realised the power expressed by his thoughts and his imagination.” said Elena Ghisellini. “Emotion is one of the cornerstones on which my collection is made and he was the right artist to interpret this emotion. I am sure we will work together again in the future.”

Follow the line: Jonathan Calugi x ARTELINEA

Immediately after a brief email exchange with the owner of luxury bathroom furniture Artelinea and its communication agency, Jonathan Calugi and Machas were invited to a meeting at the company’s offices. We were heading to the luscious Tuscan countryside to discuss a possible collaboration project and, excitingly enough, the scope of this collaboration was completely open to the artist’s interpretation.

Upon our arrival and a quick tour of the factory, we both realised that Artelinea was a perfect example of the Made in Italy brand: a fully owned family business that combines craftsmanships and excellent designs with innovative products.

Jonathan’s attention was instantly caught by a glass base material that doubles as furniture and tiles surface. We all agreed it was the perfect ready-made canvass for the first step of the collaboration: a live painting performance at Cersaie 2015, the International Exhibition of Ceramic Tile and Luxury Furnishings.

The tiles, designed to have incredibility sleek look as well as the highest standard of durability and resistance to wear, required Jonathan to perform multiple testing on the material to guarantee the perfect result — and Artelinea’s 100% Italian production provided a vital technical support.

The project, aptly named Arte&Linea as a clear reference both to the company’s name and to Jonathan’s style, saw the Machas Artist developing a fascinating series of One Line Dancers, in black, intuitive stokes were balanced out by colourful geometrical shapes. A total of 32 ballerinas, the tiles were gifted to Artelinea’s premium customers at the conclusion of the tradeshow.

Rarely we have seen a collaboration growing as organically as the one between Jonathan Calugi and Artelinea and we are all looking forward to the future developments.

Get Closer: Tooco for UNHCR new digital campaign

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, in collaboration with TBWA/Spain has launched #UnitedTweetsForRefugees, a solidarity action across social networks to help improving awareness on refugees family reunification.

On the landing page of the dedicated website, the viewer see a visualisation of the physical separation between a mother and her child, who are divided by a long, tortuous road set against an abstract desert-like landscape.

The distance that lies ahead of child can only be covered with the help of our retweets of the image of the mother and her child — two retweets that should always go together, just like families should. As the action #UnitedTweetsForRefugees goes viral the distance between the refugee family will be getting shorter and the color palette grows warmer until they will finally reunite.

“#UnitedTweetsForRefugees has been from the very start a project we’ve worked very hard on and we’ve given all the love we could” says Marta Marco, art director of the campaign from TBWA/Spain.“When we first approached Machas we were looking for an illustrator who could translate our idea and we found the right fit with Tooco.”
“We briefed him the idea and we got that good feeling straight away: from his first rough we knew that Tooco’s vision was the one that we were looking for. We didn’t want a realistic representation of the desert.” continues Marta, “We wanted something surrealistic that could relate to what that’s happening with the refugees around the world and also an illustration that would catch the user for its charm and flow over time. The result is a marvellous illustration, full of details and that really gets to show the tough path that refugees have to go through to be reunited with their families.”

”This has been a very important project for Tooco and Machas” add Valentina from Machas “ we were very keen to get involved with this important cause as it is an tragic reality for so many families.”

To help spread awareness on refugees family reunification, please go to www.unitedtweets.org and retweet the pair of United Tweets.

Valentina from Machas and Renato Fontana.

Leonardoworx.

Jonathan Calugi's artwork.

UFO5

UFO5's paper installation.

Exhibition 50x50x50

Ray Oranges' artwork at the front. Jonathan Calugi's artwork at the back.

Italianism and the Made by Italians movement

Despite the unrelenting flow of less than edifying news on failing public services and corrupted local administration, Rome has been in the spotlight for an interesting grassroots art movement: with artists such as Blu, Vhils, Reka, Moneyless and local Agostino Iacurci and Stan & Lex using the buildings as their canvas and art projects such as Big City Life and Outdoor Festival engaging the creative industry as well as the art curious, Rome in expressing a lively resistance to be pigeonholed in the postcard fantasy somewhere in between Martin Parr and Sorrentino’s Great Beauty that we grew so accustomed to.

Outdoor Festival is one of the most interesting projects both for the artists selection and the stunning location (an abandoned factory that has been saved from oblivion — or more certainly, redevelopment), and this year’s edition has opened its doors to Italianism, a one-day event focusing on the new Italian visual scene.

“ The aim is to capture the contemporary Italian creative scene with the help of young and original talents”, says Renato Fontana creative director of the event.
“The geographical migration of Italian talents to other countries and that recently had a significant increment has produced an interesting phenomenon — we think it is more correct to say “Made by Italians” rather than “Made in Italy”.

With the contribution of 100 and plus artists, Italianism presented original artwork in form of an exhibition on a “I” canvass as well as live talks aimed at exploring first hand the experiences of the Made by Italians. Although Machas was created and developed in the UK and has fiercely created a global approach, it is undeniable that it is part of the Made by Italians movement — and we were absolutely delighted to contribute the event, both with our Artists and as Machas.

Machas Artists Ray and Jonathan created two original artworks for the art exhibition, Ufo5 performed a paper live installation, Leonardoworx created the bumper video for the event whilst Machas’ founder Valentina took the live stage to discuss the perks and lows of being an Italian born living and working abroad.

“The conference was incredibly interesting as it gave the opportunity to a very different audience to listen and exchange ideas on how people in the creative world can achieve their goals and aspirations,” Valentina says.”We were asked to share how Machas started, how the English bureaucracy was instrumental in making our vision reality and, more in detail, the peculiarity of our approach to nurturing talents.”

Italianism first edition was a very successful and as Valentina highlights “it was great to see that people are not giving up on Italy but they are actually trying really hard to make a change — for the better. I felt honoured to be here and share my experience of Machas. Renato was the perfect host and I am sure this is only be the beginning of Italianism”.

Back to the future: Birra Moretti’s EXPO 2015 campaign

The Universal Exhibition, also commonly known as Expo, has been founded to provide the perfect stage to show off the most ambitious successes that man has achieved over time.

As Expo 2015 host, Milan has chosen to bring in the world’s public spotlight the pressing theme of feeding the planet in a healthy, safe and sustainable way. Expo Milan is literally becoming the world’s biggest restaurant and Moretti, as the Official Beer Partner of Expo, is focusing its presence on its key values of quality, sustainability and Made in Italy.

For the occasion Moretti’s advertising agency Armando Testa created a print, digital and OOH campaign that references Italian futurism re-visited with a contemporary sensibility and Machas was involved to manage the talent that would bring to life such vision.
After discussing with Armando Testa different visual options, Machas commissioned Danish illustrator to work on the six images released over the six months duration of Expo.

Ilaria Accornero Art Director of Armando Testa says:

Moretti asked a campaign that everybody could hang at home, graphically appealing and meaningful as the vintage poster advertising. Based on our brief, Machas rapidly suggested a list of artists among them we found the right one.
We worked closely with Machas and Mads, dealing with emergencies, changes, sleepless nights and countless phone calls with Valentina (also on Saturday night and yes, even at two in the morning!), we have produced a strong campaign and people are still asking to buy a poster size to have it at home.

Thanks to his immediately recognisable shading technique, geometric composition and bright, modern colours, Mads worked closely together with the creative team to develop a series of striking images, each one of them featuring the Moretti bottle as a perfect complement of the scene. Adjusting his color palette to the warm, saturated nuances of the Italian landscape Mads perfectly captured Moretti’s long standing tradition as well as projecting the brand into the future.

When working together for months at such a fast paced, it was great to still be able to smile in stressful situations. Thanks to Valentina we were always able to mediate and to work without too many difficulties.
Machas has been an important partner and was able to put together an advertising agency like us with an artist, even though we didn’t always have the same vision. This project was not only a great professional experience, but it gave me a big satisfaction from a human point of view, because of our collaboration with an excellent artist and the strong bond we created with Machas.

Jonathan Calugi x Guevara, the smart P2P car insurance

Jonathan’s latest one line style is proving to be quite a hit and many forward-thinking brands are reaching out to involve his minimal, witty, graphically striking style into their storytelling — and that’s exactly what new car insurance Guevara did.

The brand’s inspiration is as outside the box as the name itself and Jonathan had at to illustrate the origin of the Guevara’s idea inspired from Nairobi’s chana, the slum’s native accident-cover system, and then create four concise images to explain how it works.

After the successful digital launch Guevara want Jonathan to create a bespoke image for the Brighton launch, a huge pattern than mixed visual elements from the website artwork with the coastal city’s peculiar mix of street art, architecture and lifestyle.

ReThink collage: BECHA x ENI

With more than 20 artworks produced over a period of more than two years, BECHA’s ENI ReThink campaign is without doubt one of the most successful and long-standing campaigns of the European energy supplier.

Focusing on promoting a sustainable and more conscious approach to energy consumption both at the supplier and user end, the campaign comprises of different artworks in which the subjects emerge from BECHA’s elaborate use of collage and intuitive paint strokes.

For all of you familiar with BECHA’s style, the Eni campaign stands out for the very different approach to her collage technique: “the client required this campaign to be instantly recognisable but at the same time to adopt a visual solution that could be applied not just to one or four ads but 10 or more ads with different motives”, BECHA recalls. “We ended up producing more than 20 ads whilst presenting each time a different message in a visually interesting way.”

Upon closer inspection each subject reveals an intricate collage pattern of carefully arranged photos, depicting gestures relevant to the campaign’s message such as switching off the light or turning down the thermostat.

“The main element I used were the photos of the gestures”, says BECHA. “Each photo was printed, some of which were treated with water-colour strokes and some weren’t, and then photographed again. After that I created the main image with photographed material using Photoshop and lots of digital brushes.”

“It wasn’t the first time I did ‘real’ collage” recalls BECHA, “as at school I started learning the traditional technique first. I am glad that after such a long time a commercial project was the starting point for taking paper and graphic tools in my hands again. Of course, since the deadline for every ad was tight I had to finish some part of the collage digitally but I tried my best to keep that analog feeling.”

Such an interesting and unusual approach required preparation: “at the beginning we made a lot of sketches and back and forward with TBWA’s creative director to find a strong art direction. But that was a good basis for whole project and then it was fun to work on new subjects with an established process.”

The campaign was seen everywhere in Europe: from billboards to newspapers, from POS to digital. It was even in St. Peter’s Square in Rome as a 5 by 6 meters hoarding!
“I think that was the first image I made and it was the first time that I saw it on air. I mean, I was satisfied with results but watching it on the screen and in real life it’s a completely different thing. So, at first I thought “Oh, this came out really nice…” , and then “...oh my, is that St. Peter’s Square?!?!?!”

Take a trip around the world with Ray Oranges and The Escapist

Monocle, the global business and lifestyle publisher launched its second yearly publication, The Escapist. As the title reveals, the magazine is focused on the concept of travelling both as physical movement through space and as a state of mind.

Machas’ artist Ray Oranges was invited to work on the cover design by exploring the best creative way to represent the act of travelling. As the readers are invited to discover several travel related features, Ray’s visual language creates a connection between the magazine and the gorgeously vivid world revealed in its pages, the cover morphing into an open-ticket to a tempting landscape of minimal and geometrical shapes and summery nuances.

The magazine’s launch was very successful and created an international buzz which included the praises of Moma PS1, Highsnobiety alongside other avant-guard brands and publishers.

Tyler Brûlé, the editor-in-chief at Monocle, said: “The Escapist has been created for our core audience who like to take time off but are always scanning the horizon for a new business to invest in, an architect to commission or a new plot to develop. This is a magazine for people who use their holiday time to dream up their next scheme and want a jolt of business inspiration while they’re stretched out on their lounger.”

After several collaborations, Ray’s visual storytelling is definitely the right fit for Monocle’s issues.
See more of Ray’s work here.

This is how The Iterative Method looks like.

Blue Module Render

Math Generated Art: Leonardoworx’ The Iterative Method

Working side by side with multimedia artist Leonardoworx is not a merely professional duty, it’s an incredible experience. His latest project, aptly called The Iterative Method, sees Leonardoworx raising the bar of his comprehensive approach to visual art and music, this time using a combination of maths, physics and coding to generate art.

Every shape, line or movement of The Iterative Method hasn’t been put together in a software suite but has been originated by an array of numbers (variables) set into formulas created by artist himself and that followed the paradigm of Quantic Physics. That is to say that Leonardo didn’t know the visual outcome of the artworks he was creating, just that if the math was correct they were going to appear as an orderly shape—the incredible beauty of the project lies both in the final result and in the creative process, which required an astonishing amount of skills and knowledge.

But if you are like us and mathematical functions are just a fading high school memory, what is The Iterative Method? We asked Leonardoworx to give us an insight for Dummies on this incredibly complex yet fascinating project that expands the realm of aesthetics into math, physics and coding and ultimately to philosophy.

M: The artwork we see in the Iterative Method was completely created by mathematical functions: how did this idea came about?

LWX: It all started when I was working on the House of Peroni installation, as it was the first time I used iterative functions translated in coding with Processing. I was immediately intrigued by the idea of creating an infinite number of auto-generative artworks that evolve from a simple structure into more and more complex creations that I call module or DNA — for its similarity to genetic code. The Iterative Method gives an infinite number of options to create these complex modules, however I intentionally decided to keep the function simple in order to unveil its beauty.

M: The Iterative Method project encompassed maths, physics and coding: how did those three elements worked together?

LWX: The goal of physics is to study all natural events, events that can described and quantified mathematically. This is the reason why the connection between mathematics and physics (especially with the evolution of the modules movements) was quite natural. The coding was simply the language I’ve used to communicate to the computer the formula that governed the generation of the modules.

M: How did you create these modules? How did you choose them?

LWX: In order to have more control on both the shape and the movements of the modules I’ve used just a limited amount of variables. The process was quite straight forward: once I inserted variables into the functions, the Mac would generate an endless series of modules. I then chose a range of variables in a set moment of time that would create the modules I thought were more interesting and emotionally engaging.

M: Were all the modules you’ve created used for the project or was there one that didn’t make the final cut?

LWX: I discarded one and that’s because it kind of looked like a flying saucer.

M: That’s interesting: most of the modules were good from the very start: is it fair to say that it wasn’t a tentative creative process?

LWX: I’m so used to write coding that whenever I write strings I can already visualise what it is going to appear on the screen and to be honest, if the math is right there is no chaos.

M: How did this project effect your creative process?

LWX: There was definitely a shift in my approach, especially as this time I wasn’t using a 3D or interface-based software: I was working directly with the computer, forcing myself to create a fully functioning basic language able to run complex creative process.

M: You’ve also made a series of artworks to complement the video the project: how are they linked together?

LWX: Each complex module has been originated by running the function of “simplier” modules (respectively the orange, cyan, violet and yellow) in the iterative function.

M: What was your inspiration for the music?
LWX: I composed everything on a OP-1 and a Maschine. Mirroring the visual part, I wrote the score with a pattern form on Max Msp and then reused them. I didn’t use any sound design as I wanted the sound to be very minimal and focusing mostly on the voice of Alison (the computer who introduces the modules). Speaking of Alison, I think that I worked so much on this project that I might had a chat or two with her in my coffee break!

M: Although The Iterative Method is based on math and physics the result is not cold at all, quite the contrary, is incredibly powerful from the emotional point of view.

LWX: When I started this project I felt there was a strong connection between the iterative method and some of my personal experiences, although I didn’t clearly understand why. I then started researching online and went through a lot of M.I.T. papers, thesis, TED talks and all those sources shared one idea: that all our feelings, like the love for someone, even someone who is not with us anymore, go beyond a determined space and time and follow an iterative pattern that can be quantified with one “value” that we already know. This is the reason why I did The Iterative Method.

Up On The Roof: Ray Oranges for McCann’ Film Festival

Take the stunning rooftop of one of London’s top ad agencies and seven great movies, each one representing a basic storytelling plot; then show them on a big screen, add some astroturf to give that it’s-warm-again! feeling, plenty of refreshments and finish it with Ray Oranges’ posters and what you get is one amazing Film Festival experience to celebrate summer season.

From Whiplash to the Big Lebowski, the audience plunged into the rooftop cinema experience right from the invite that Ray designed, in which the distinctive art deco features of McCann’s building are seen as looking from the top down on the street below.

The bird-eye view is the fil rouge connecting all the Up The Roof posters, as if spectators were glimpsing at key scenes of the movies from the rooftop at the time. “McCann’s Creative director Max Chanan wanted to use very same view for all posters”, say Ray Oranges, “and this bird-eye view makes everything much more intriguing and dramatic; it fits perfectly with my love for geometry and I was able to create different compositions, with lights, shapes and shadows.”

Each poster shows the main characters surrounded by beautiful geometrical shapes created by mixing the set elements with spot lights and colors, sometimes creating surreals results. Ray’s style is again instrumental to introducing different stories through a balanced and stunning visual treatment without compromising the singularity of the narrative plots.

Jonathan Calugi for Washington Post’s Capital Fringe issue

When Jonathan Calugi read Dawn Cai’s mail to commission him for the Washington Post’s Fringe Festival issue, he could hardly hold his excitement: it was the first project endorsing his new and abstract, Picasso-inspired style. We all thought it was a pretty daring move, especially as the very style was deemed not figurative or commercial enough in the past but were absolutely sure that, if the client didn’t have a last-minute change of heart, the outcome was going to be outstanding. We embarked then on an exceptionally smooth production and few weeks later the result was gracing the pages of the Post’s supplement. We caught up with Dawn to go behind the scenes of the project from a her prospective.

You asked Jonathan to create the artworks using one of the most recent and abstract style — it was a very bold move; what was so intriguing about it and why did you think it was fitting for the issue?
I think it’s a combination of the story and personal background. The story is about Fringe Festival, an innovative, quirky, adventurous and creative contemporary art festival in Washington, DC. It is very conceptual and abstract in itself; it honestly took me a while to research and take a grasp on what this contemporary art festival really is about. The audience who are interested in this type of art is very bold, adventurous; in fact, the mission of the Fringe is to engage and challenge the audience with experimental performances. Therefore, I feel in our visual presentation, we should provide something different to challenge and engage our readers as well. The abstract and weird nature of the event gave me a free-range in terms of creativity. It made me very excited, as someone coming from an art history background, particularly with interest in modern and contemporary art. I’ve always been intrigued abut the crossover between art and design, where is the line if there is one and how can the two merge. I feel this is a perfect opportunity to integrate the two. I thought I wanted something different, something artsy, abstract, experimental and raw. The first idea is lines, because of the literal meaning of “fringe” as well as it’s a cutting-edge art event, then from lines I thought of Jonathan’s line works which I’ve been admiring for a long time. Then I went and checked his work and saw his latest works fit exactly what I want: something different, artsy, abstract, experimental, raw but at the same time full of energy. It just seems very fitful and kind of break the boundary between illustration and art. And I’m very glad I got to bring something different and all the editors and everyone involved in the project all embraced this direction.

How did you came across Jonathan’s work?
Honestly I don’t even remember how I came across his work in the first place. Maybe it’s from Behance, a very long time ago. One of my favorite things to do when I’m bored is just to scroll the Internet to look at best design works out there. Maybe it was from PUF! Identity project? I remember I was very struck by his use of color and blown away by how he masters the usage of lines. And also his website is called Happy Lovers Town, I thought, he must be an awesome person. I’m a very happy person who is kind of obsessed/intrigued with love and the idea of love, so that got me more interested in Jonathan and see how he plays out the ideas of happiness and love in his work. I love how his work is really fun, spontaneous and striking at the same time.

Any particular anecdote about the project that you would like to share with us?
I am new to DC and didn’t know much about the Fringe prior to this, and the first thing I learned about this festival is one of my coworkers describing one of the performances as this artist would come to your house, do your dishes, and do a monologue for you. So I was like “o..k.. This is gonna be fun, haha.” Another thing is that after we chose the direction and got the first sketches, it’s always interesting to get reaction from people who hasn’t seen this kind of work before. One of the editors remarked it reminded her of Matisse when I showed the sketches, some people read into it very literally trying to figure out what they are doing, a lot of people pointed out it seemed like there were sexual references in there somehow, and some people said it was very primitive. But then all in al they are not real people they are more like ideas of people and gestures. So I love these conceptual interpretations that happened.

Machas Artists’ Jonathan Calugi and Ray Oranges get on board with Monocle

Monocle’s new issue has just hit the newsstands and it features a very substantial contribution from Machas Artists’ Jonathan Calugi and Ray Oranges.

True to its global approach, Monocle Issue 85 is investigating the best city lifestyles and means of transportation around the planet - and for the very first time it has invited illustrators Jonathan Calugi and Ray Oranges to contribute to startling visuals the magazine has become renewed for.

Jonathan’s brief called for a representation of the latest innovations in the transport industry and he developed a set of minimal elements as a decoding system of each context, adopting his elegant Picasso-inspired line doodle punctuated by bold graphic shapes .

While Jonathan explored this new style, Ray was called to represent the urban lifestyle of eight different cities. By creating the perfect combination of urban elements, geometrical shapes and sophisticated colours he connected apparently distant concepts such as art and social housing.

Jonathan and Ray’s images provide a visual support to uncover how technological evolution can modify the perception of space.

Jeff Rogers x TED

Beside being one of the most exciting lettering artist of the planet, Jeff Rogers is a trained musician and an overall great performer: whether he is touring the US with his band or paint live the man never fails to instil a positive aura and to inspire.

Many many years ago when Jeff was still at high school he was prompted by one of his teacher to focus on just one outlet for his creativity — but was that really a good advice?
Have a look for yourself!

Ray Oranges for StradaLex: the shape of time

With smart phones and watches organising our life and constantly monitoring our health, it’s no surprise that even lawyers want to step in the modern age and adopt digitalised tools to speed up their job.

Stradalex fills the gap by offering a digital library that gives instant access to hundreds and hundreds of publications; the message is simple: less time spent on searches means more free time to enjoy the best life has to offer — and the artist called to represent the beauty of making the most of time is our Ray Oranges.

The subtle nuances and the minimal shapes presented in the three artworks are an invitation to relax, whilst the abundance of empty spaces allows imagination to roam free way beyond the office walls. Whether is the beach, the swimming pool or just world outside the window, Ray’s illustrations channel that space between the desire and the reality.

Ray Oranges x The Corner House

Who wouldn’t love to own a house in the heart of Stockholm’s thriving network of museums, bars and cosy cafeterias? And what if that house is a brand new luxurious designer penthouse with large glass windows overlooking the gardens and fountains below?

The Corner House is such place and when they were looking for an illustrator to launch their online presence and highlight the lifestyle attainable in such premises we knew it was going to be the perfect project for Ray Oranges’ illustrations.

It’s no secret that Ray’s style, with its clean lines, dramatic prospectives and play with scale, is heavily influenced by modernist architecture and the Corner House project was going to put his aesthetics to good use. The brief also required an illustrated a map of the building location and Ray, instead of opting for a familiar bird-eye view map, suggest an interesting faux-3D approach that definitely created an unexpected result.

Ray’s map and illustrations can be seen on The Corner House’ website at thecornerhouse.se

Karl Lagerfeld’s Palace

Paper art studio Wanda Barcelona have created yet another astonishing installation for «ModeMethode», Karl Lagerfeld’s retrospective now showing at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn.

The exhibition is a fascinating journey through Lagerfeld’s body of work: it begins with a replica of the designer sketchbook-covered desk, where discarded ideas lies around as crumpled paper, and culminates in Wanda Barcelona’s 500 square meters paper palace that houses his Chanel Couture most emblematic pieces.

The palace is composed by precious floating foliage that seemingly pours in columns out of books positioned across the floor and required more than 15.000 laser-cut pieces of paper to create a three naves hall. The paper’s delicate creamy hue and subtle burned outline elegantly compliments the beauty and craftsmanship of the couture creations and resonates of Lagerfeld’s modus operandi, in which every idea is drawn on paper and is either produced or discarded and incinerated.

«We knew that it was key to show Lagerfeld’s approach to design, his ModeMethode» says Wanda’s architect Inti Velez Botero, «so we embraced the importance of paper in his creative process, the gesture of drawing and of crumpling paper, the way some ideas make it to production and the way some others… just vanish.»

“The brief from Steidl, the book editor who designed the exhibition, was clear: they wanted a palace and they wanted WOW — which was great!”, continues Inti. “ The only challenge we had was to create such a complex installation in such a little time, because when you have time you can do everything and in this case we didn’t have that luxury.”

“It was an incredible project and every single hour was so much fun! Just imagine the constant daily routine of this latino noisy group of Colombians inside a German museum… how to start….. it was LOL!”

Created and executed in three weeks, the paper palace has been defined by Vogue as «paper couture installation» and it could be visited at the Bundenkunsthalle in Bonn (Germany) until September 2015.

“El espacio que ocupan las cosas”

Every artist here at Machas has a very strong fine art background and Tooco’s latest solo show is a perfect example of how an artist can excel at working with a brief and communicate to a broader audience and can create abstract art showed in established galleries.

“El espacio que ocupan las cosas”, which translates to “the space that things occupy”, is a series of painted wood sculptures that was inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights” and now on display at the Beatrix Roads Gallery in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“Many of Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings have the triptych format, some of those representing three different stages: that’s exactly what has inspired me” says Tooco from his studio, “of course it is my very personal interpretation of this concept.”

“Instead of canvas I used each wall of the gallery as an element of my triptych. In the first wall I represented the origin, the genesis of life before man appeared on Earth. This is the reason why I used white as the main color, as a symbol of purity, with protruding shapes underlined by subtle coloured borders that can only be seen from the sides. Most of the shapes are curved to recall an organic manifestation of life, emulating water, the fundamental component that has generated life.

“Right in the middle of the first wall the viewer will see a piece called ‘THE FIRST SECONDS’, which is kind of egg/uterus composition that gives life to the universe. This is a direct reference to the central element painted in the first panel of ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’.

“The second wall represents the appearance of man on Earth, with elements that resemble mechanic structures, engines. Electricity, mechanics, inventions: the human world.

“One piece in particular represents the human Beauty as the most perfect aspect of human beings. But at the same time, the title give us an idea of what is coming: “WAITING FOR THE CHAOS” — it like a pause before the end of life.

“And finally, on the third wall, destruction appears, the chaos, the end of life — this wall is specular to the first one. There are two complete black relief artworks: with their sharp, geometrical lines they sit opposite to the first white curved pieces, representing death, the end of matter. In the middle of both, an engraved wooden piece called ‘THE SINKING’, a reference to Caspar David Friedrich’s painting ‘Die Eismeer / The Wreck of Hope’.”

Straight from the Coca Cola's archive: the posters that were used as inspiration.

100 for 100: Ray Oranges for Coca Cola

A quick glimpse at Coca Cola’s history will clearly reveal how art has been an instrumental factor in transforming a well-designed and appealing product such as the Contour bottle into an icon that proceeded to go beyond its product category to embrace all American and Western culture.

To celebrate the 100 years of the Contour bottle, Coca Cola has commissioned 100 creative minds from all around the world to re-interpret few key images of their archive where the Contour bottle is the main protagonist — and our Ray was one of the artists that Coca Cola reached out to.

Ray’s poster is particularly striking as it uses Coca Cola’s key colours but has added a vaguely sensuous twist to the familiar woman-drinking- Coke archetype. “Many will find my choice unexpected as Coca Cola is mostly perceived as a family-oriented brand” admits Ray, “however if you take a look at their archive you will see subtle elements that drift away from an unidimensional communication towards a more adult yet ‘stubborn optimistic’ approach. That’s where my inspiration came from. My body of work is featuring in great part very abstract subjects but now the human form is becoming more present; with this poster I wanted to explore an aspect, a nuance that my artworks haven’t revealed yet — until now ”.

The Power of Collaboration: Jonathan Calugi for Dubai Expo 2020

With less than two months before the gates of Milan Expo 2015 will be open to the public, Dubai has already unveiled the big plans it has in store for their upcoming celebration of global technological excellence.

Together with McCann London, Dubai has commissioned 21 artists from all around the world to represent in the form of 4m high modular sculptures the 21 topics that embody the core values of Expo 2020; these sculptures, placed in key locations around the capital of the United Arab Emirates, combined together will form Expo 2020’s logo.

As Dubai is planning to go further beyond bringing people together and to facilitate the exchanges that will build the future, Jonathan was chosen to interpret the key topic of collaboration.
“I was given a lot of creative freedom,” says Jonathan, “and initially my attention was drawn to the pentagonal shape of the sculpture rather than the artwork, which was a bit tricky; but when I focused on the topic of “connection”, the whole work came together really quickly and I’ve designed a one-line artwork where all the elements are joined together. It was fun to do and also really interesting to channel different ethnicities with my one-line style whilst keeping the minimalistic effect.”

Together with the sculptures, McCann has produced a series of videos shot in the studio of the artists involved in the project. “When we did a video call from my studio before the crew came here to film, “ recalls Jonathan, “my studio was a total mess! And the heating was also broken so I had this massive beard and one of those improbable hand-made woollen jumpers on — I thought I’d scared the people at McCann!”

“Anyway, I really like how the video came out, especially as it shows how messy I am and how neat my work is! The whole project has been great and it’s so fascinating to see the differences in style and personality of all the artists involved.”

Welcome Wanda Barcelona

We are beyond excited to announce that Wanda Barcelona have joined Machas!

Wanda Barcelona has became known all around the world for their unique take on paper art which fuses traditional techniques with innovative approaches, avant-garde design with a touch of playfulness.

The Barcelona-based trio has a brilliant mix of skills that allow them to consistently crafting outstanding visions: Inti, the architect, is in charge of creating spaces that Dani, the designer, fills with unique objects while Iris, the artist in the family, surprises the viewer with subtle tickles up the spine.

A happy artist, is one who takes photos of his artwork with a well pleased face!

Discovering Rome: Ray Oranges at The House of Peroni.

As anyone who’d visited Rome will tell you, the Eternal City is a place of astonishing beauty. The golden light, the texture of the buildings’ surface and the insanely high concentration of historic remains per square meter makes Rome one of the most unique places on Earth. Even so reproducing Rome in images can be very tricky: its views have been so deeply engrained in our visual data base that quite frequently we are one step away from the stereotype, as Martin Parr showed in his brilliant Tutta Roma.

When Ray Oranges was called to join the second instalment of the House of Peroni event in Holborn, London, and create an installation for the client’s private Meeting Room, he was asked to capture the essence of the Nastro Azzurro’s birthplace through his contemporary vision.

The brief required the artist to bring the true Rome to those who never been there or show a different angle to it, whilst focusing on the brand, its authenticity, vivacious and provocative spirit. Ray used a visual representation of the liquid of the brew that tied elements dear to the Nastro Azzurro history together.

The artwork created featured Ray’s trademark play with scale composition, where architectural elements are blended in with the landscape and people, drenched in a breezy blu hue. The sheer dimensions of the artwork, which totalled to two 6.50 by 4,20 meters panels that were going to be installed in the meeting room, required particular attention to the production phase, as such a beautiful artwork deserved an excellent delivery.

The team at Machas knew exactly who could deliver such project to the highest standard and picked up the phone to call the lovely people at Vinyl Impression. Ed the owner and Joe worked side by side with us to make sure that every detail would be looked after and that the installing phase would be an extremely straight-forward process. The result? Ray’s artwork was printed on a premium matte vinyl which had a fantastic texture, leaving most of the guests baffled to know that it was indeed vinyl. The client was particularly satisfied with Ray’s interpretation of the brand that steered away from pointless corporate celebration and delve deep into beauty and taste.

Jeff Rogers goes cat crazy for Friskies

It’s no secret that everyone here at Machas HQ is a sort of closeted Crazy Cat Lady (or Crazy Cat Gentlemen — and by the way, does that definition even exist??) and we are very fond of Jeff Rogers’ new campaign for Friskies.

The ATL and BTL campaign designed to launch Friskies’ new BBQ-inspired range of cat food sees Jeff delving into his Texan roots to create astonishing hand written type and drawings that spring out of real life situations.

From print ad to the TV commercial, from POS to digital, the cat food range gets the Rogers’ trade mark treatment of fun, beautiful, colourful artwork.

Jeff, how did the project came about? “The art director on the project pulled several portfolios to present to the client. Three artists were chosen and hired to do a round of visual explorations around the idea. They included typographic treatments, ad layouts, possible animation ideas, etc. After the exploratory round was completed, I was awarded the project.”

What is your favorite part of the project?
“I’d have to say seeing the way it came to life as an animated spot. I think they did a good job at animating it. That and the little grill cow! ”

Any challenge or fun bits?
“I really don’t care for cats because I’m extremely allergic! so early on I sent a note to what I thought was a friend saying, “I need to work “death to all cats” in there somewhere” and accidentally sent it to the agency. They weren’t amused. ha! But I won them over by the end and we still keep in touch. It ended up being like a 3 month long process. I really enjoyed developing the grill animals (which we referred to as “magicons” for some reason) since I usually just focus on typography.”

Jeff, we still like you even if you want to kill our cats! See more of Jeff works here.

Jeff Rogers: editorial update

Our favourite type master has been incredibly busy the last couple of months here is a selection of his editorial work.

Let’s Play: Jonathan Calugi for Google Play

Google’s love affair with illustration stronger than ever and Jonathan Calugi was one of the artists called to design their latest US advertorial campaign for the entertainment platform Google Play.

Taking cue from the payoff “The Magic That Inspired Us To Dream”, each artist was given a specific fairy-tale theme to develop; Jonathan’s pick was the Princess in the Castle and with his doodle style he created a dreamlike image in which an enigmatic princes is reigning over a floating of magic castles.

Tooco for Ubi Bank

“Our bank is pro young people” one said Ubi Bank’s CEO and the communication campaigns developed so far visually reflect the bank focus. To launch a new mortgage product Tooco was called to illustrate in a playful style how house renovations could be easier than one would expect.

Team Power: Fernando Chamarelli for Eni

In occasion for Eni’s Gas & Power conference, Fernando Chamarelli has been chosen to create the key image for the annual sales meeting.

Consolidating the team efforts and energising the sale force were the key objectives of the conference and Eni deemed Fernando’s artwork the perfect medium to channel those messages.

Fernando, who has exhibited his artwork in galleries and murals all over the world, has a fluid and quite distinctive style, in which all the elements appear to be connected and participating of a continuous flow of energy.

The production process seen in the images in the post here sheds a fascinating light on the creative mind of the artist and after testing different compositions, the final image strikes a balance between the complexity of the elements and the different sizes and surfaces it was going to be apply to.

Drink it up!

Diente, the Argentinean annual creativity award prize, celebrates the best and most innovative communications produced in the Latin American country and Tooco excelled in the illustration category.

The Campari campaign was aimed at promoting a new spin on the classic Italian drink and has been developed to represent the values of the brand: the spirit of a young drink that mixes Campari with orange juice, bringing a distinctive, new flavour to one of aperitivo favourites.

As the Italians here at Machas can confirm, aperitivo o’clock is the moment when day blends into the night and Tooco perfectly captured in a visual form this moment — as well representing Campari’s ingredients in his distinctive visual language, where organic shapes are seamlessly blended with precise geometries.

When we asked Tooco about the project he just answered “Basically they like my stile and they gave me freedom to create—it was great! This is my first Prize in the Advertising field! SUPER HAPPY!!!”

Designing Within Constrains: Jonathan Calugi for Herman Miller

Whether you’re happily walking out of Nike Town with the store bag firmly clutched in your hand or watching the new Apple Macbook Air TV ad, spotting Jonathan’s work is easier than saying “vector”.

However Jonathan is not one to rest on the laurels and he is constantly pushing himself to explore new expression of his style. The recent illustrations he has created to illustrate Herman Miller’s hospital furniture range Palisade on WHY magazine are seeing the talented Tuscan artist steering his doodle style towards a more minimal, one-line approach, moving away from the pattern inspired of his early works.

“I’ve been thinking about finding different ways for the lines to interact for a while now”, says Jonathan. “I wanted to move away from the cut & paste type of image and I also I was really intrigued by the possibilities of the GIF that I’ve created for this project— in this case the lines are creating the backdrops but that could be made of blocks or even photographs. Everything is in constant evolution and I’ve been extremely lucky to work with clients such has Herman Miller, who are not afraid of letting the artist explore new ways of expression”.

The designer who created the Palisade range referenced one of Eames’ most famous quotes as starting point to resolve the design problem ahead of him: “a designer must willingly and enthusiastically work within a series of constrains”. Anyone familiar with Jonathan’s work knows that is a key element of his artistic vision; “ We are all constantly working within constrains, constrains created by ourselves or by the way we grew up, the society and so on. I believe that is unrealistic to work with absolute freedom and that actually it’s the constrain that pushes the designer to achieve something new”

Few moments before the Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit in New York City opened its doors.

CREATIVE DISRUPTION: LEONARDOWORX FOR BLOOMBERG MARKETS

Bloomberg’s annual list of the 50 most influential of global finance this year crowns the “Global Disrupters”, people that have acquired their power not by following well-throdden paths but by challenging the status quo.

The Global Disrupters piece required a Creative Disrupter such as Leonardoworx as opening image and in just three days the Machas multimedia artist has created this Tron-inspired 3D artwork.

The image was also used in occasion of the fourth annual Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit in New York City.

THE TIMELINE: ALFA ROMEO GIULIETTA’S HISTORY AS SEEN BY JONATHAN CALUGI

60 years of passion, anecdotes, technological innovations which have established the myth of Alfa Romeo’s Giulietta have been represented on the coupé’s bodywork by Jonathan Calugi.

In occasion of the Mille Miglia historic race, one of the world’s most renowned vintage car parades, Alfa Romeo asked Jonathan to identify the key elements of Giulietta’s rich history and illustrate them with his trademark one-line style — this time not digitally but live in front of the curious public who could stop by and interact with the artist himself.

Jonathan is well known for his vector art but he’s surely not one to focus on one medium only and was extremely excited at the idea of going analog for this project. “I’m constantly exploring new venues to express my approach to design and to push my comfort threshold even further”, says Jonathan.

“The main challenge of the project was to recreate the essential sleekness of the vector line whilst retaining the charme of the freehand trait. It might be because I’m from Tuscany but I opted for the dusting technique, which was used quite frequently during the Reinassance period, mostly for frescos and ceramics.

It consists of puncturing the desired design on a sheet of paper, which is then placed to the surface that has to be decorated and then coloured. The ink seeps through the holes and when the paper is removed, you have a quite detailed outline that only needs a final finish.”

“It sounds like a labour heavy technique but I was able to illustrate the whole car in less than two days!”

A very special thanks to Caterina and everyone at Green Records (Padua)

IT’S IN THE STARS: BECHA’S HOROSCOPE FOR GLAMOUR ITALIA

It’s no secret that Becha has been extremely busy working on the advertising side of the creative divide, and very soon we will share all the information about the biggest campaign of her career so far; however being occupied with the advertising industry doesn’t necessary mean she’s lost interest in fashion illustration — quite the contrary.

After the incredible success of the Silent Spring and Never Forever series which has made her style immediate recognisable and was featured on the leading digital art publications, Becha’s recent illustrations for Glamour Italia show the Serbian artist exploring a yet different side of her visual language.

For Glamour Italia Becha has developed a subtler version of her pop and bold mood, achieving a skilfully balanced composition between illustrative and collage elements.

“For the horoscope illustration I didn’t want to simply combine a fashion element and the sign”, Becha says. “ I was more intrigued by the personality of each sign and I wanted to represent their character and personality”.

Ray Oranges for HSBC’s “Make Time Travel”

After two award winning campaigns with the New York Lottery and countless editorial illustrations on both sides of the pond, Ray Oranges has landed his very first British campaign.

Grey London selected Ray to bring to life the HSBC joint campaign with British watchmaker Bremont “Make Time Travel”, aimed at inspiring businesses to take off — quite literally!

Ray’s outstanding play on scale approach is the key visual element of the quirky yet charming ad, in line with HSBC determination in involving the brightest illustration talents for their communication.

The The BULLY Project Mosaic and the Mural website were donated to BULLY's director Lee Hirsch during this year's Adobe Max - watch Lee's presentation here

Say No Go: Leonardoworx joins Adobe’s BULLY Project Mosaic

Adobe reached out to Leonardoworx to be one of the sixteen Behance artists from around the world and partecipate to the Bully Project Mosaic.

Each one of the artists involved worked independently to create one unified piece, an expression of how community and commitment can change the world against bullying, a social plague that affects the life of million of teenagers around the world.

Leonardoworx’ work title is called Keep Ya Head Up and it’s about “the necessity to keep your head up, to hug people and spread love; true love will give you a colourful and strong feedback that generates beauty.”. Leonardoworx, who experienced the viciousness bullying himself, wholeheartedly embrace the project. “I believe that the force of creativity and art is really powerful”, says Leonardoworx, “It can fight physical violence using beauty and win. And this movement is great. I hope it grows to involve more and more talented creatives and artists.”

The Bully Project Mosaic and the accompanying website, The BULLY Project Mural, which an ever-changing digital mural to which people can contribute artwork and stories, were donated
to Lee Hirsch during the Adobe MAX, the filmmaker behind the 2012 documentary BULLY who has inspired the Bully Project, an american social action campaign.

To know more about the Bully Project and how to take personal action to make a change, visit www.thebullyproject.com

Ray Oranges’ builds a roller coaster for Wired Magazine

Here in England there is a lot of buzz going around the latest Wired UK issue and it’s main feature on the burgeoning data industry: it is literally a journalistic outing of the big white elephant in the room, as most of us consumers are blissfully unaware (or disinterested) of the constant profiling we are subjected to.

However, if you want to forget about Big Brother for a second, flip to the How To section and be inspired on how to build a roller coaster in your garden while enjoying a brand new full page illustration by our Ray Oranges. If you reading the magazine from your iPad you can also see the animated version — we all love it here because it brings to the light a more playful aspect in Ray’s style.

And if you still want to build that roller coaster, just make sure you don’t use your credit card to buy the materials!

‘Shine’: Leonardoworx x House of Peroni

We have to admit it: here at Machas we have a soft spot for the House of Peroni, the London-based month-long celebration of Italian creativity.

It all started this spring when we were contacted by M&C Saatchi to unleash Leonardoworx multi-faceted talent on the House residency’s theme: 1963, the birth year of the Nastro Azzurro blend.

Leonardoworx jumped at the idea paying tribute to a year that marked a pivotal moment for contemporary design and music. In the design world architect Mario Bellini joined Roberto Olivetti and Pier Giorgio Pianotto at Olivetti to start working on the first very personal computer of human history ( the P101).

Olivetti broke the concept of desk computer, minimising the bulky and very expensive IBM RAMs into hand-held components woven out of intertwined piano strings. While Bellini gave shape to this historic change and elaborated a machine designed to feel natural to the user, Luciano Berio brought contemporary music to new frontiers, leaving the traditional concept of “structured score” he ventured into the realm of “sound events” where music becomes geometry.

Leonardoworx, a trained musician as well as what we informally call in awe a “ninja nerd master”, has been literally brought up with the influences of those visionaries — his very first computer was an Olivetti designed by Mario Bellini! Leonardoworx celebrated the cultural richness of 1963 with “Shine”, a multi-sensorial immersive installation in which user controlled visuals and sounds enhanced social interaction.

The fluctuating polygons controlled by the Guests travel against a code-generated oniric landscape, creating each time new shapes and new sounds as they draw closer together, in a metaphoric re-enactment of the gesture of cheering.

As the experience is naturally intuitive and playfully engaging the work that went behind “Shine” is really impressive and required all of Leonardoworx’ knowledge to deliver it in an exceptionally fast turn around— a month!

Beside his coding skills and musical education, he brought to the table his physics notions to allow the polygons a floating movement rather than a boring mouse-like scrolling and, most importantly his hacker skill, the latter being instrumental in making the whole react vision technology work. The react vision technology employs an external USB camera that captures the movements of the IDs and translates them into what is written in the code. Unfortunately Apple’s then new iOs, Mavericks, could read only between 3 and 5 fps instead of the standard 30 fps and if Leonardoworx didn’t take the matter in his own hands “we would have got an installation looking like a stop-motion video!”, he recalls. A couple of hours later he managed to changed the settings to 120 fps, allowing a incredibly smooth interaction.

The installation was extremely successful and fun to use. For Leonardoworx “the challenge was to connect people using the installation as an intuitive and immersive language to communicate with. Many new relationships started in Shine installation room while drinking a Nastro Azzurro!”

On the eve of the new House of Peroni residency which will feature Machas’ hand made paper cut master Ufo5 and Cannes-winner illustrator Ray Oranges we know that with Leonardoworx’ installation we set the bar high.

Jonathan Calugi x Apple Macbook Air

We are all well aware of a certain fruit-titled global brand and it probably ranks at the top of most artists dream client list. Well, this month Machas’ illustrator Jonathan Calugi popped a great big tick next to “Apple” as his work was featured in the technology titan’s brand new press and TV campaign.

Drawing attention to the countless and varied ways folks utilise the MacBook Air, the worldwide advertising campaign is a fast-edited video mix of a selection of the imagery pinned to front of the slick super machine.

Jonathan created with his well-recognisable single stylised line a uber fun camera, which beautifully carries the concept of the world right at your fingertips — alike the MacBook Air itself!

Watch the ad below!

Jonathan Calugi gets creative with AIRBNB

Unless you’ve spent the past week vacationing on Mars (and we all know how bad is the wifi there), you’ve probably come across the global maelstrom of posts that the new Airbnb logo kickstarted. From serious articles on the Guardian to facetious analysis on Mashable, everybody with an internet connection was evaluating if the new logo had a vague resemblance with something we can all relate to.

Whether that would be the case or not, we personally don’t mind — quite the contrary! And most importantly we were really happy to participate to this major restyling launch with some artwork of our Love Man Supremo, Jonathan Calugi.

Jonathan created a series of animal themed vector illustrations that can be intertwined into AIRBNB’s new logo: animals such as elephants and snakes and, of course, a cheeky cat is in the mix too.

If you want to have a go at personalising your own Airbnb logo and playing around with Jonathan’s animals just head down to the CREATE section of Airbnb’s website and have fun!